Bonded
by TheFreedomSock
Summary: A spell goes wrong in the library leaving Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy magically bonded. Interesting...
1. Chapter 1

I've been told that this chapter should be rated as apparently it could be triggering if you've experienced abuse before.  
>I've never received this complaint before as in my opinion it is very mild, but the last thing I would want to do would to be trigger someone<p>

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><p>He woke up and sighed as he remembered. It was not an annoyed sigh, a happy sigh or any other conceivable sigh, just one that remembered what had happened and didn't feel about it. It was early; barely dawn, not that you could have noticed without any windows. The torches on the walls took the place of the sun, their glow beginning at sunrise and ending at sunset. The one next to his bed was just beginning to glow. Knowing that sleep would now be futile, pointless even, he padded over to the bathroom to take a shower. He enjoyed the cold water more than the hot water he would switch it to later. The cold water made sure that he was awake, alert and aware, the hot water made him relaxed and drowsy which was not a state he liked to be in. Unfortunately his body was now protesting to the icy jet, shivering violently. He smiled down and his quaking limbs, leaving it another few minutes before turning on the hot tap.<p>

He emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist; his dorm mates were still awake, snoring in the blissful oblivion of sleep. He dried his hair and put on his trousers then went to the full length mirror opposite his bed, staring at himself, his white blonde hair, his silver grey eyes and his perfect milk white skin. Not quite perfect, he thought bitterly as his eyes strayed to his forearm. That mark would never come off, he didn't want it to. It reminded him of things that he needed reminding of. He winced as his eyes lingered on it, remembering the searing pain of it, burning him like no fire could. Despite this memory of pain he gave another small smile. _What doesn't kill me, only makes me stronger_. It had become his personal mantra over the past month, recited as many times as he needed it. Regularly.

He heard the sound of Zabini stirring in his sleep, soon to wake up. Draco quickly pulled on his shirt, making sure his shirt sleeves were right the way down to his wrists before Blaise pulled back his hangings. Most people would expect Zabini to wake bleary eyed, he did not. Only a few Slytherins did, only those who were incredibly stupid allowed themselves to linger in dreams once the real world had been remembered. Blaise was not stupid, too clever and observant for in own good in fact, not that this opinion was shared with Zabini. His sharp eyes and fast thinking had come in handy many times over the years. He nodded at Draco before heading off to the bathroom himself.

While Blaise had been in the bathroom Draco had styled his hair, perfectionist that he always was. When Blaise came back, already dressed, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle were still asleep. Contrary to popular belief, Draco could have friends and Zabini was as close as they got. They exchanged a smirk and Blaise went back into the bathroom, emerging with three orbs of water floating in the air before him. Nott, although he wasn't a particularly light sleeper, always seemed to wake up at the exact right moment and jumped out of bed, now completely awake before he could be woken up. Draco, Theo and Blaise smirked at each other as the third sphere dropped from the air, vanishing as it hit the ground, while the other two also dropped, though those two did not vanish when they hit the two remaining occupied beds. Crabbe and Goyle never overslept at Hogwarts. They woke up choking and spluttering to find an empty dormitory, the other three occupants having retreated to the safety of the common room.

Breakfast was just as Draco had expected. Those people who had kept away him originally and some of those who hadn't before did now. By many he was ignored as before and by his fellow Slytherins he was accepted. Things rarely changed. Except there was a small change. The remaining Weasley looked up from the Gryffindor and noticed him, his white blonde hair was hardly the most difficult to spot, and then turned a shade of red to rival her hair. At first he hadn't been able to hear what she was saying but slowly the volume rose.

By the time he caught the words, "filthy fucking bastard!" the boy who had been sat next to her was forcibly removing her from the hall. As they went past the Slytherin table, her volume reached its peak. Even some of her fellow Gryffindors at the opposite end of the hall were staring at her outburst. "That Deatheater fucking PRICK!" the boy dragging her out of the room seemed to have told her to calm down as she exploded, "I will not calm the fuck down Dean! That disgusting piece of fucking filth is the reason Dumbledore is dead and that little shit is just sat there, not giving a fuck! He just doesn't care a crap! How dare that poisonous little fucking snake-" the boy finally lost patience with her,

"Ginny, just shut up!" he yelled, nowhere near reaching her volume but just about audible over her rage. She carried on unperturbed,

"just waltz back in here as though we're meant to have forgotten! How dare-" but before she could finish her sentence she had been dragged out into the entrance hall and out of hearing. Draco's face wore nothing but a faint smirk, as though he found the whole thing amusing, but it was far too easy for him to arrange his face to show sentiments he didn't feel. Weasley's words stayed in his head all through breakfast. "… the reason Dumbledore died… he just doesn't care a crap." If she knew…

Fortunately he had way too much self-control to let her stay in his head any longer. But it didn't mean he didn't still think about the accusations. Everyone was thinking them; it was just that Weasley was the only one to say it. It was bollocks, not that he'd ever tell them.

That night he woke from another dream, another nightmare more like, actually, just another piece of his life going on in his head. It was the night it had all gone wrong, the night Dumbledore had died. He woke up in a cold sweat with a burning feeling on his arm, like a reminder of something he had to do, of a task he had been set, of a meeting he had to attend. No, this wasn't right, it couldn't be. In panic Draco stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. He pulled up the sleeve of his pyjamas and stared into the mirror at his arm. He sighed with relief then wretched, reaching the toilet just in time. After heaving up most of his dinner he wiped the foul tasting bile from his mouth and stared down at his arm again. Thank god. Never let something you thought when you were asleep bother you in real life. It let people know what your nightmares were. Despite it being about two o'clock in the morning he decided it was time for a nice cold shower; the best way to get rid of dreams. _What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger._

Naturally the next day he was exhausted and very glad that Weasley managed to control her temper as he couldn't be bothered with another scene, although he often looked up to find her glaring up at him, livid and unashamed. He didn't care frankly. He didn't really care about anything much anymore.

"Draco what's wrong darling?" simpered Pansy anxiously. He did his best to fight a groan; even his worst would've stopped it completely. No emotion, no loss of control. "Draco, sweetie you can talk to me." She cooed, putting her arm around him and doing her best to cover every inch of his back with her hands and arms. Bollocks, he thought. Utter bollocks. Not only could he not talk to her, he did not want to talk to her. He couldn't stand the stupid bint. Honestly, she made such a fuss about their relationship. It wasn't even like they actually had one except for using her as a snogging partner every now and again when he got bored.

"It's nothing." He said simply and abruptly, hoping to put her off. She pouted like a stubborn toddler denied her way, which she was really.

"Draco darling?"

"Let's go to class. I don't want to be late for Potions." She pouted again but made no complaint as he made his way down to the dungeons. Unusually this was not true. He had no qualms about being late for Potions; in fact, he wanted to spend as little time around the Potions Master as possible this year, even less than he had last year. But he would rather spend time waiting around for Snape than with Pansy so with a sigh he went right down to the Potions room. He was surprised to see Snape there already, he usually turned up at the last possible moment for dramatic effect but today he was sat behind his desk already. Draco cursed in his head, why did this have to be the one day Snape was early.

"Yes?" the impatient voice cut through the silence and Draco did not dare keep Snape waiting. Not that he was afraid of Snape, there was only one person in the world that Draco was afraid of and it sure as hell wasn't Snape, but since Snape was still a teacher it would just be easier for Draco's continuance if he went to Snape when called. "Ah, Mister Malfoy…" Snape left it there, unspoken words hanging in the air between him.

Draco knew that Snape wanted to talk about what had happened over the summer but doubted that he would chose to do it now. Not in hearing range, Snape was too cautious, too clever. But he would not simply let it lie, they both knew that. They stared at each other, both trying to read the other with no success. Snape was a master at occolmency and Draco had been raised since birth to show no emotions. Not in his face or his eyes unless it so suited him, in which case they were usually false. There was the sound of footsteps from the top of the stairs,

"Very well then." Whispered Snape, "Take your seat."

In Potions there were an odd number of them so Blaise and Draco sat together, but they also had to endure the presence of Verity Bluestone. She was a very pretty girl with silvery grey hair and blue eyes who was (in Draco's opinion) a rather good kisser. Their "relationship" hadn't lasted long, she got too clingy. Blaise was the only Slytherin, only person actually, who Draco liked at all. Despite them both being sneaky, back stabbing Slytherins they were able to confide in each other. They had been friends since first year and so had by now accumulated quite a lot of blackmailing material. The only reason they could be remotely honest was because of this blackmail, Draco knew Blaise had far too much on him to even think of blackmailing Blaise and vice versa so they were able to actually have conversations in which things were talked about, not just alluded to like most Slytherin conversations.

Draco didn't really know or care what he had made in that lesson. He had done very well in it he was sure, what it was he couldn't begin to guess. This was partly because he just didn't care, and partly because he was distracted. Not nearly as distracted as Blaise however as Blaise was trying to ward off Verity who was refusing to give up on trying to get Blaise to ask her out. She would have to keep asking him for an awful long, however pretty she might be. Draco and even Blaise would've been lying to say they hadn't been at least slightly amused by this.

After several more lessons, which ones he didn't really give, it was time for lunch. Draco went through the actions of eating normally, still not a clue what he was eating or saying but no one really noticed much difference. Whatever he said to Pansy must have pleased/offended her as she left him alone until dinner, which he went through in just the same way. He was aware that he was completely different to how he had been last year, but none of his fellow seventh years seemed to have noticed a difference, or he would have believed this if Blaise hadn't been scrutinising him more closely than usual. Blaise was always doing that, it was how he kept ahead of the game, always knowing what was going on because he, unlike everyone else, could be bothered to look and then actually saw. And what he saw now was not your average Draco.

Down in the Dungeons in the Slytherin dorms Blaise listened and counted the breathing of his dorm mates that night, then drew back his hangings."Draco, you're awake." It was not a question. "What's wrong with you?" there was no denying it. If Zabini said it was wrong then that was it, no dispute. It was not simply because people were scared of him, although many were afraid of what dirt he had on them, he had dirt on everyone. It was because Blaise was right, and never said anything unless he was. Draco sighed, reclining against the extra pillows he had had sent up for him. He considered his answer with care. You didn't lie to Zabini but there was no way Draco could tell the truth, not unless he was sure.

"Show me." He said, sitting up suddenly. There was no need to ask what. Blaise stood up slowly, pulling up both sleeves to show that neither arm was blemished with the ugly tattoo that Draco had hoped not to find. He would not let his feelings show in anyway. He let out a small snort. "Of course not Zabini. You wouldn't make it there in a million years." Well controlled as Zabini was, with a crack like that he couldn't have been able to prevent himself from snapping if he had any ambitions at all.

However instead he took a small calculating pause, evaluating each word carefully, perfectly aware that the Malfoys had always favoured the Dark Lord. "Perhaps, or, perhaps not. Nevertheless, I do not intend to find out. I am afraid I don't have such ambitions." Draco gave him an equally evaluating look. Blaise was telling the truth, the look of slight nervousness on his face as he watched Draco receive his renouncement of the Dark Lord said it all. The master of forged expressions, Draco knew a genuine one when he saw it. He too sat up, after the bad dream of the previous night he had decided not to wear anything that covered his arms at night. He twisted round in his bed putting his legs over the side and held out both his arms outstretched for Blaise to see. Blaise's jaw dropped as he stared at Draco's arm. He stared at the ugly mark that marred his perfect skin in disbelief. After a while he managed to choke out, "Y-your arm!" Draco allowed a smirk to spread across his face and chuckled.

"Well noticed Blaise, yes my arm." Drawled Draco with a confidence he wasn't entirely sure he felt.

"But, but there's, no mark." He finished lamely his mouth still open. He turned to look at Draco's face, "You, you had a mark didn't you? I-I'd swear I saw it!" Blaise had never liked spluttering or stating the obvious, it made you appear weak, something he hated.

"Yes Blaise, you did see a mark, a real one. It was there last year. I got it off." Here Blaise's jaw looked as though he was going to dislocate it; so far did it drop in his mouth.

"You removed the dark mark? But, how the fuck did you do that? No one's ever done that! Ever!" Draco forced a chuckle again.

"You don't think I got this burn by accident do you?" Blaise's astonishment twisted into something close to disgust.

"You burned it off your arm? What spell did you use?"

"Don't be ridiculous Zabini, the Dark Lord has thought of every spell, every potion known to wizard kind, it cannot be removed with magic!" Blaise looked puzzled

"Then how did you get it off?" he asked perplexedly. A flicker of something passed across Draco's face and he swallowed, not looking at his arm.

"Known to wizard kind. A much simpler substance worked. A good dousing in hydrochloric acid works wonders you know." He said, disgust in his voice, a trace of revulsion on his face. Blaise looked faintly sick.

"You covered your own arm in acid? Why the-"

"Because it's the only way!" he exploded, finally losing control. "You'd have done it too, if it was you with that on you. You'd have done whatever it took to get that fucking thing off, you wouldn't have been able to stand it either!" Blaise sat on his bed quietly, staring at Draco, thinking things through. Suddenly the situation didn't look too good for Blaise. Friends they might be, but now he knew Draco's greatest secret, was he just going to be able to walk away with all limbs intact?

"Oh and Blaise?" Draco's voice was soft and low, his silkiest whisper with threat in every syllable. "If anyone finds out about my little secret, then everyone will find out about yours, then I won't have to make your life a living hell, they'll do it for me." Draco drew his drapes back around him and lay down, leaving Zabini on his own with his thoughts. Finally get some good dirt on a Malfoy and you can't even use it for blackmail. Typical.

Blaise was far from surprised that he had known nothing of this before. It was an unspoken agreement between them, and many other Slytherins in fact, that you don't really talk about Voldemort. Slytherins were either fanatics who boast of their upcoming initiation, or you don't really mention it. It's assumed that you will join and if you're asked you're very much looking forward to it, but you don't mention it, no matter how good friends you may be. That takes more than trust.

Draco was sat in the common room, pretending to read a book to avoid looking at Pansy who was desperately trying to catch his eye, something he was equally desperate not to do. Pansy really wasn't pretty. She had pallow skin and a flat face, not good. Especially when a very pretty girl was also trying to catch his eye from the other side of the common room.

Draco looked up at her and raised an eyebrow, she winked and got up to leave, gesturing him to follow. Usually Draco would never follow, only lead, but now he was perfectly happy to follow. She led him out onto the grounds before allowing him to catch up. She turned to him once they reached the oak tree by the lake and he pressed her up against it, a hand already up the back of her shirt, his lips fixing themselves to hers. Draco was able to forget all the shit that was his life, caught up in sheer lust for this girl and simply forgetting caused him greater pleasure than the kiss itself, not that that hasn't pleasurable too.

Just before going up to their separate dormitories Eva explained that she already had a rich, well connected boyfriend and wasn't interested in any kind of relationship with him, she was just bored. This suited Draco perfectly. He was more the kind of guy to go for no-strings-attached passion rather than having to belong to someone, that idea bored him. Eva was exactly perfect.

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><p>Ginny too had woken up on the first morning and examined her reflexion in the full length mirror on her wall. She knew she was attractive; she could hardly fail to notice what with the way all the guys looked at her, she just didn't really see it. Ah well. She had pale skin with a hint of tan, but a quite pale face dotted, no longer covered, with freckles. She had large brown eyes and thick lashes, unfortunately ginger in keeping with her mane of red hair. Ginny sighed as her eyes passed over her uniform. It was all too small and too tight, her blouse had obviously been made for someone with slightly smaller boobs than she had and the buttons were beginning to show it a little.<p>

The only new uniform she had were the floaty black robs she wore which billowed slightly in the breeze, what she could really do with however was a new skirt. Even her hair was longer than her skirt; her skirt was more than a few inches above the recommended point while her hair went to half way down her back. Her hair was her favourite thing about herself, it was very red and there was lots of it. It was a huge mane filled with curls that tumbled over themselves in their eagerness to get down her back. It shone brighter reds and gold flecked auburns in the light. Unfortunately her hair reflected her temperament, she angered easily and her temper was a force to be reckoned with, should you be stupid enough to invoke it. Unfortunately someone had.

Whenever Ginny saw Malfoy she had to leave. Where ever she was, whatever she was doing, she had to get out of there. Weasleys had never been known for their good tempers and after spending her entire life competing with all of her brothers hers was probably the worst. She couldn't bear how easily Malfoy had just walked back into the castle after becoming a Deatheater and leading Dumbledore to his death. He may not have been the one who had cast the fatal curse but Snape wouldn't have been able to if Malfoy hadn't put Dumbledore at the top of that tower in the first place.

Her outburst in the great hall the first morning back had proved how ineffective all her efforts (not that she tried particularly hard) to control her temper were. Even a few weeks later she couldn't be anywhere near him without wanting to scream and kill him. She couldn't believe that no one else was doing this, why the hell not? No imagination is required to picture Ginny's reaction when she realised the seat she had picked in the library, the last seat, was right next to Malfoy. She couldn't leave, she had a history of magic essay to complete that should've been handed in two weeks ago; she needed to do it. Not that that meant it was easy keeping her temper in check. She just sat there for a few minutes, fuming quietly, her face going red from the effort of restraining herself and hissing angrily.

"Weasley do you mind? I'm trying to do my arithmancy homework here and it's rather hard to concentrate what with all the hissing." He drawled at her, not even looking up from his textbook. Ginny glared daggers at him and bit back a retort simply for the sake of trying to stay in the library. Instead she just hissed in annoyance and turned away. Malfoy looked up from his textbook again, "Weasley, are you deaf?" He asked her patronisingly, in the same voice one might use when talking to a mentally retarded toddler. "I thought I told you to stop the hissing. And anyway, I thought I was supposed to be the poisonous little fucking snake."

Ginny looked up from her work again, surprised that a) he had remembered what she had called him for even a second after she had said it, and b) that he was actually saying anything remotely negative about himself. But by this time he had looked down and seemed entirely engrossed in Numerology and Grammatica Grade 7.

She had finally finished her essay, or nearly, she was just doing the conclusion for "What were the main causes for the twenty-third goblin rebellion?" when she heard a shriek. "DRACO!" oh dear god. Pansy Parkinson was on the warpath. How could the entire library be so sure it was Pansy? No one else could elevate their voice to that pitch, only bats would be able to hear her if her voice got any higher.

Although not many people liked Draco Malfoy, they had to admire his courage. Instead of grabbing his stuff and fleeing like everyone else was doing, he just sat there, continuing to read his book, which frankly was not interesting at all. No one but Hermione could have the level of fascination in such a dull subject currently shown by Malfoy who was still diligently devoted to his arithmency homework. Within minutes of Pansy announcing her imminent arrival, only two people remained in the library: Draco, who was determinedly ignoring Pansy and Ginny, who was desperately trying to finish her conclusion.

"Draco!" the scream rang out again, but this time from only a few feet away. "Draco how could you! How could you cheat on me? We've been together for so long, and with that little whore as well! Draco how could you?" it seemed Draco could put up with much, but not Pansy's fake tears which were in danger of spilling down her face. Fake or not, no Malfoy could cope with a woman in tears, so he decided to act before having to deal with one. He finally looked up from his book, looked her straight in the eye and drawled,

"Firstly, I didn't cheat on you, mainly because we're not going out. Never have been and never will be." Screw her conclusion, Ginny decided now would be a good time to get the hell out. "Now if you'll excuse me Pansy but as usual, you disgust and bore me. Goodbye." Ginny had walked a rather long way around several chairs, tables and a couple of bookshelves before finally being on the other side of Pansy and able to head to the door. Draco got up to follow her out when Pansy pulled out her wand and screamed "Vinculum!".

The silver flash of light went right towards Draco's heart, with a flick of his wand he deflected it. Well, half of it. One half of it hit him, the other bounced back and hit Ginny right in the back of the neck. She hadn't noticed and tried to keep walking, however she seemed to have hit an invisible barrier and fell over. Pansy looked between Draco and Ginny, mouth open and eyes wide in horror. She let out a small shriek and fled, leaving the two in the library.

Draco was worried, very worried. Spells that hit and had in instant effect were easy, you knew immediately what they were and then you went and found someone to fix it. An unknown spell with unknown properties was hell. You didn't know what it did, how seriously it did it or how long it would take to do it. Draco decided to ask Pansy in whatever way would be the most productive, exactly what she had hit him with. He stepped over Weasley who was still sat on the floor and walked, in all appearance of calmness, out of the library. Or not. He had barely walked five metres when he too hit an invisible barrier and fell over, swearing fluently. He got up and began to walk around the perimeter of this wall.

Ginny was still sat on the floor, not because she couldn't get up, but because of the weird and stupid thing Malfoy was doing. He appeared to be walking in an exact circle around her. When he reached the point they had started from he stopped, looked over at her and swore again, even louder and with more vulgar language than before. "Malfoy what the bloody hell are you doing?" she asked, making sure her tone was more insulting than curious.

"Get up." He told Ginny. "You heard me you stupid bitch, get up!" Ginny was so surprised at this command that she did as she was told without thinking. Malfoy then proceeded to shove her a few feet away from where she had been. "Stay there, don't move!" He then walked around in another circle around her, his face getting angrier and angrier. Draco was sure by now what Pansy's curse had done but did not want to accept it. Now that Weasley had moved, so had his boundary. He followed it right the way around again, hoping that he would not have to face what he had feared. However, after completing the circle exactly five metres around Weasley again. "Shit!" Draco sat down in a chair and put his head in his hands. "Shit." He swore again.

"Malfoy what the fuck are you doing?" asked Ginny, wondering if Malfoy had finally cracked. "Ah screw that, I'm out of here." She got up and walked away, but stopped as she heard Malfoy address her.

"No you're not Weasley." His voice was faintly muffled through his hands.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say? Cause it sounded a teensy bit like you telling me I can't leave." Said Ginny, her temper rising to boiling point at once. Malfoy took his head out of his hands, staring at her unblinkingly.

"In that case Weasley, you heard right. You can't go anywhere."

"And who the hell are you to tell me where I can and cannot go?"

"I am the one who is magically bonded to you, and yes you heard it right." Ginny stared at him for a full ten seconds. He looked deadly serious but she couldn't help herself but laugh.

"Yeah Malfoy, that's true." Her voice dripped sarcasm, but Malfoy just smirked.

"Fine then Weasley, you just walk six metres away from me. I dare you." Ginny glowered at him and walked off. One, two, three, four, five, thud. As soon as she had tried to walk past five metres from him, she had fallen over, landing painfully on her arse.

"Ah, shit! What the fuck?" Draco wasn't smirking anymore.

"Get up Weasley, and follow me." She looked to him as though she was going to resist, "Unless you'd rather be stuck to me forever?" he hadn't even finished his sentence before she had got up and was ready to follow him. Usually this would've caused him to smirk, but he really wasn't in the mood and simply set off out of the library.

Ginny had great difficulty in keeping up with Malfoy. It wasn't that she was unfit, but Malfoy was just walking so damn fast. Every now and again be would turn back to her, grab her arm and continue walking, dragging her along with him. She was so distracted with his insanely fast pace that she didn't realise where they were going until it was too late. There was definitely no way she would've allowed herself to be lead to the dungeons otherwise. They approached a large black door set in a dead end corridor with several people standing around it. This it would seem was the entrance to the Slytherin common room.

"You!" hissed Draco at a first year who looked as though he was about to faint in terror. "You, go get Parkinson. If she doesn't come then you will bring her to me."

The first year scuttled off, still looking absolutely petrified while Malfoy stood there, staring at the wall, face blank but obviously incandescent with rage. Although Ginny refused to be scared by generally anything, this was making even her a little nervous. Had Malfoy currently been yelling and hitting things then she would've been much more comfortable and just jinxed him. This cold, controlled fury was just a bit much to handle and Ginny found herself slowly backing away. As soon as she realised this she hastily corrected it, standing a little behind Malfoy, also waiting for Pansy.

As soon as Pansy came through the door Draco had her up against the wall with his wand out. Pansy let out a little "Oh" of surprise. "Out with it bitch, what did you do?" asked Draco in a perfectly controlled voice which was full of anger bubbling just below the surface. Pansy simpered and gave him a sickly sweet false smile that made him want to retch. He put his wand right up against her throat, pushing it into her neck so hard she could barely breathe. "What. Did. You. Do?" growled Malfoy in a voice of controlled anger.

Pansy suddenly burst into tears. Draco moved back from her quickly like he'd been burned, looking disgusted. Pansy continued to sob loudly, tears rolling down her cheeks. Malfoys can't handle tears. It just isn't who they are and this one was no exception. He stepped back towards Pansy and slapped her hard across the face. Instantly her tears stopped and instead of screaming she just looked at him as though mildly annoyed and pouted like a spoiled child. "That wasn't very nice of you Draco." He continued to glare at her, still looking slightly repulsed at her display. "Well it was worth a try anyway." She said in a casual, slightly bored voice.

"Is there any reason I can no longer moved more than five metres from Weasley here?" asked Draco, finally masking his fury. He knew it wouldn't get him far with Pansy, so he tried a different approach. Pansy looked up and suddenly noticed Ginny standing the maximum five metres from Malfoy and looked aghast.

"Five metres? To her? You're chained that close to this little-"

"Let's not forget who chained us together. Now either you tell me what you did or…" he smirked suggestively with half a glance at Ginny. Pansy got the message and looked even more horror-struck. She knew exactly how promiscuous Draco could be and had no opinion at all on the morals of a blood traitor brat.

"Okay Draco darling, I'm sorry, I really am so-" Her speech was interrupted by Malloy's wand restricting her wind pipe. She looked close to tears again. "I'm so sorry Draco sweetie, I just, I just," a tear escaped her eye and Draco slapped her again even harder knocked her whole head to the side.

"I'm not interested in your crocodile tears." Pansy straightened up again, all trace of tears gone.

"Fine then." She announced, her manner suddenly brisk and business-like, bristling with anger. "I saw you with that stupid slag Eve or something and I didn't like it. I want you back Draco so I thought I'd bind you to me, then we'd have to spend time together. But it went wrong and you're stuck with this little blood traitor bitch instead." Draco wasn't remotely interested.

"How do you get it off?" Here Pansy showed her first signs of actually being a little scared. She let out a nervous little giggle.

"Well Draco darling, you see, I wasn't really paying attention to that bit." Draco's fist swung forward and connected with Pansy's face and she fell against the wall with a whimper. Even Ginny couldn't stand back and let Malfoy beat Pansy to a pulp so she grabbed hold of his arm just as he swung it back to hit her again and dragged him back. He looked as though he was going to hit her instead, but simply took a few deep calming breaths and slipped the mask back onto his face.

"Come on. Let's get this bloody thing undone." _What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger_. Hopefully.


	2. Chapter 2

Apparently Draco had more pull in the boundary than Ginny did as if she stopped he was able to simply drag her along the floor a few metres behind him. She discovered this when she realised that she was being lead down to Snape's office in the dungeons even deeper than the Slytherin common room. She was not going to go down there if she could help it.

"Why the hell are we going to Snape? We could go to anyone! Anyone! We should go to McGonagall, Flitwick, hell, ANYONE!" But she was completely ignored. She tried to stop him by just not walking but she was just dragged along on the ground. When she managed to finally get up again he was walking ridiculously fast again so she just gave up trying to walk and just sat and was dragged. There was no way she could keep up. If she thought he had been walking fast earlier, it was nothing compared to now, she would've had to run all the way to Snape's office if she'd tried to keep up, and no way was she going to go running anywhere after Draco Malfoy. She just her to out up with being magically dragged.

As soon as Draco reached Snape's office the Potions master knew what had happened. Before then in fact, as the sound of a girl being dragged very quickly down a steep spiral staircase is not hard to identify. When Draco arrived in the dungeon Snape was stood there, smirking at him. "Pansy Parkinson. Not me." He hissed angrily, then noting Snape's raised eyebrow he added, "Sir." He had never really gotten used to addressing a man he had known his entire life as sir, but at school there was no alternative. "Excuse me Draco? Miss Parkinson cast a bonding charm upon you and Miss-?"

"She meant it to hit only me." Interrupting Snape. "But it went wrong, it split in half and half hit each of us. And now she can't remember how to take it off." Snape waved his wand and a beam of light shot towards them. They proceeded to move away from each other, hopeful that it had worked. Ginny hit the edge of her barrier and fell over. Snape shot several more spells but nothing worked.

"Hmm. Unfortunately Mr Malfoy," Said Snape, addressing Malfoy exclusively and completely ignoring Ginny, "It seems that since the spell was divided the normal counter curse will not work. You will simply have to wait until the effects wear off."

"WHAT? No, sir that can't be right! We're just stuck together until it stops working?" Ginny felt on the point of collapse but Draco retained all appearance of being calm and collected.

"How long will that be sir?" he asked. Snape considered him, almost as though he was wondering how much to tell them. Finally he replied,

"It should be about a month or so until the physical effects wear off." Malfoy crossed the room and sat down and Snape's desk, putting his head into his hands again. Ginny just stood there gaping at Snape.

"Obviously your timetables will need altering. I shall speak with the headmistress. Wait here." And Snape left, his black cape billowing behind him giving the slight impression of a large bat.

"Malfoy, you total moron." Announced Ginny, now sitting on the floor. Malfoy looked up at her.

"Excuse me?" he drawled

"You heard me. This is all your fault we're in this mess . If you hadn't-" Malfoy cut across her.

"Honestly Weasley, does your mind simply not work?" He sneered. "We are in this mess because a jealous bitch went and put us into it."

"Yes, and that was your fault! If you hadn't-" But Malfoy interrupted her again.

"If I hadn't tried to find a way to get out of the hell that is my life at the moment!" it was Ginny's turn to interrupt this time,

"Your life, hell? As if! You wouldn't know hell if it hit you in the balls! You have no idea what real life, real hell is like do you Mal-" The look he gave her could've killed. Even Ginny felt herself shrivelling up slightly.

"You think my life is perfect do you Weasley?" He got up from the desk and began to walk slowly towards her, "You think everything around me was perfect and handed to me on a silver platter? You think I find my life hell because I'm just a spoiled little child who doesn't know what life is really like do you?" he hissed all this at her, his eyes flashing fire, advancing slowly. Ginny had honestly not felt this scared since her first year, and never before then. But it wasn't her way to curl up when she was scared, instead she would do and say stupid things to make her seem braver.

"What's wrong Malfoy? Your dark mark not as pretty as you'd like it?" Instantly she knew she'd never said anything more stupid. She suspected that Snape might actually have saved her life by coming back in at this point.

Her new timetable was very simple Actually, it was Malfoy's timetable because he was in a more important year and could not afford to go back a year. Fortunately Ginny was bright enough to keep track of what was going on in most of her new lessons and it turned out that she and Draco were taking the same subjects. Annoyingly, Malfoy had more power in their bond which meant they went where he wanted and she had no choice in it. So they ate at the Slytherin table and slept in the Slytherin dormatories. Although this pleased Draco's roommates very much, strangely enough, Ginny was not happy with this arrangement.

That night she was trying not to stress. She'd just spent her first afternoon ever in the Slytherin dungeons. Fortunately in Malfoy's room (god things were desperate if that was fortunate) and not the common room. When some of the other Slytherin seventh years started to go up for bed Ginny got up from her camp bed beside Draco's and went to the bathroom to change. Naturally her pyjamas, like all the other clothes, were old and too small, and far too young for her.

They were tiny and cute which Ginny intensely disliked them for, but hey, it wasn't exactly like she was planning on sleeping with anyone so who cares. They were white, not-quite-opaque cotton with little white squares embroidered on and a small pink rosebud print. The bottoms barely covered her but just about managed it and the top was a little tighter and lower than it should've been. But she was fin with them, not like she was going to be showing anyone else. Not intentionally anyway.

When Ginny emerged from the bathroom clutching her pile of clothes she could practically hear three necks click as the heads turned towards her and she found herself being ogled by Nott, Crabbe and Goyle. Eurrgh! Ginny tried not to cringe as she hurried over to her bed and pulled the duvet up to her chin.

"Maybe we should come up a little earlier tomorrow night Weasley?" Malfoy's voice reached her quietly through his hangings with a smirk that she couldn't necessarily see but could hear nevertheless.

"Yeah, good idea Malfoy." Ginny was still a little too creeped out from being stared at in very little by three Slytherin pervs.

After she got her brain back she realised that Malfoy, although still an obnoxious, arrogant twat, he wasn't being quite as much of an arse as he could've been. Hell, he'd just done something _considerate_. He'd just deliberately suggested _protecting_ the modesty of a _Weasly_.

If all her friends knew exactly who she slept with that night they would be so jealous. Not on the account of the boulders, Vince Crabbe and Greg Goyle, or creepy looking Theo Nott, but because of the two others. She was sharing a room with the two sexiest guys in the whole school. Draco Malfoy was the school's resident Bad Boy who looked like an angel. Gone was the skinny, scrawny ferret with the pointed face. Now he was painfully gorgeous. His face was still long but now it was elegantly so, his features were not so pointed and now he looked almost beautiful with his milk white skin, angelically fair hair and striking silvery eyes. Not to mention that he was a quidditch hero with great muscles and an excellent six pack.

The second sexiest guy in the school was Blaise Zabini. He had dark skin, not African dark, more like a South American colour, and dark hair that he slicked back slightly. He wasn't nearly as muscular as Draco but there was enough muscle to make him fairly hot. He, like Malfoy, had a certain amount of mystery and intrigue about him; no one really knew anything about him. They knew that although he was Slytherin and obviously had Slytherin cunning, he also seemed kind with his dark, caring eyes and he definitely wasn't a womanizer. Unlike Malfoy.

Ginny's small camp bed was right next to Draco's on the floor, thankfully just under five metres from the shower. She hated sleeping in the Slytherin dorm. The room itself was surprisingly nice, it had heavy mahogany furniture and everything was a shimmering emerald green. The whole place gave off an unmistakable air of luxury, even the hangings were velvet for god's sake! Although she liked the furnishings she heartily disliked the place, not only because of its occupants, but because of what they sounded like when they slept.

The great boulders snored incredibly loudly, Nott had light snores, Zabini just breathed deeply and, most disturbingly, Malfoy was silent. There was never any way of telling whether he was awake or asleep. His breathing was just as silent as when he was awake and he woke at the slightest movement, if he slept at all that is, and Ginny knew he did. Some nights she would be awake and would know exactly what time it was because at exactly two in the morning she would hear Malfoy. His breathing would become heavier, he would start to toss and turn and within five minutes he would sit up, panting hard. For some reason she would always hear him ripping the covers off his bed, not entirely so he still couldn't get up, just enough to uncover about half of his top.

Now she thought about it (why was she thinking about it?) she had never seen Malfoy in his pyjamas. When she came out of the bathroom after getting in her pyjamas he was always in bed already with his hangings shut. She wondered what he wore, (bad Ginny, very bad!) knowing him it would probably be some expensive green silk thing, probably with his initials embroidered across the pocket. But then again, did she actually know him? There more time she spent around him, the less sure of this she was.

Whenever he was with most of his fellow Slytherins, or other Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws for that matter, he was a slimy git as usual, but sometimes, just sometimes, he seemed almost okay. He was surprisingly considerate. She expected to have to spend hours sitting uncomfortably in the Slytherin common room while he joked with the rest of his house, the centre of attention as he had always seemed to be, but the reality was quite different.

Draco spent most of his time in the dorms or sat in the shadowy outskirts of the common room on his own (as far as possible since he was bonded to Ginny) or with Zabini who rarely bothered Ginny. Although Malfoy himself was rarely in his throne, it didn't mean anyone else was allowed in it, or even near it. He and his cronies were always very much vigilant about that. Instead of making snide comments about other people and laughing at their expense like Ginny, and everyone else as well, expected of him, Malfoy spent most of his time working or reading. Perhaps he actually worked for his high grades rather than buying them.

Sometimes he would even help her with her Potions homework. Potions had never been Ginny's favourite or best subject, but now she was suddenly in the middle of a seventh year course and Snape refused to make any exceptions for her. She had to do the same work and homework, to the same standard as everyone else in a class that was a whole year ahead of her. Potions seemed to be Malfoy's best subject and when she was about to scream in frustration he would get up and help her.

"Malfoy, what the hell are you doing?" she asked the first time this had happened. He looked up at her, amusement in his eyes. It surprised how easily she was able to read someone who refused to move any feature of his face.

"Well Weasley," he said as though trying to explain something very simple to someone very stupid, "You were about to set the dormitory on fire, so now I'm helping you with your homework so that this room remains green, not red with flames as I'm sure you'd prefer it to be."

Unfortunately for Ginny, Malfoy was much more a morning person than her. On the first weekend they were bonded she tried to rip his head off when he woke her up at "Six! Half past fucking _six_ in the _fucking_ morning! Malfoy you are fucking _insane_! I'm not getting up at this time on a Saturday, it's fucking _Saturday _you prick! You're meant to have _lie-ins_ on Saturday you total fucking-!" Ginny's rant was only ended when Malfoy put a silencing charm on her.

"Listen Weasley, I wake up on Saturdays and I do quidditch drills, I would offer you the option of staying here but unfortunately that can't happen. You should at least be thankful I'm giving you the opportunity to get dressed rather than dragging you outside in your miniscule excuse for a pair of pyjamas. Now get up before I make you." Ginny glared at him and gave him the finger, still under the silencing charm, before picking up some clothes and going into the bathroom to get dressed.

Baring in mind what Malfoy had said about quidditch drills she put on some more sport appropriate clothes than usual, black leggings in lycra and a strappy lycra top in a shade of bright scarlet that clashed wonderfully with her red hair.

She emerged from the bathroom and snatched her wand from Malfoy and countered the silencing charm before realised that he was, there was no other word for it, _checking her out_. "Hey! Stop that you perve!" He smirked at her before leading the way down to the grounds. He had in fact been checking her out, he liked what he saw, there was no denying it. Not many people can get away with lycra, it really isn't flattering, but Ginny looked _good_ in it. She was so skinny that it did not blow her stomach and thighs out of proportion. She wasn't one of those boyish girls either, girls that are _so_ skinny they've got no shape, straight up and down girls. She was hourglass, do doubt. Very nicely shaped hourglass, something the tight fabric did not fail to show off. He appraised her, one eyebrow raised, until she called him back to his senses and they left the dorms.

As they ascended the stairs from the dungeons Draco got the feeling that she was now checking him out. What not to like really. He was not wearing lycra, instead, a pair of black shorts and a black muscle top. At least, it had been a muscle top until he had been forced to charm of sleeves to hide his arm. When they got outside Ginny was quick to point out the flaws of doing quidditch drills; if they accidentally flew too far away from each other they would fall, and if they were a hundred feet off the ground that was not a good idea. Reluctantly Draco moved away from the broom shed. Why could he not even have the one basic, simple pleasure of playing quidditch anymore? Damn Weasley, he may as well just Avada himself now and be done with it.

"So." Said Ginny, bored already. "What are you going to do now?" Malfoy considered this for a moment.

"Well, Weasley, I am going to go for a jog. Coming?" He flashed her a smirk, knowing she had no choice but to follow him.

"Exactly how long do you intend to jog for?" She asked him, keeping up easily.

"Until I have very little energy left. Then I will do ground drills, then I'll take a shower." Ginny rolled her eyes and groaned slightly. How long would it take for him to get tired? At this speed it could be hours. It wasn't hours as all of a sudden Draco got bored and changed speed. With a yelp Ginny sped up too, now finding it a lot harder to keep up with him, but managing nevertheless. More than once he shot a rejuvenating spell at her so she would have enough energy to keep going, his stamina was immensely better than hers.

He would run until _he_ couldn't run anymore, she would just have to keep up until then. Finally and to Ginny's great relief, Malfoy collapsed, elegantly as ever, onto a bench by the lake. The two of them sat there, Ginny sprawled across the floor, Malfoy sat with the same perfect posture as always on the bench in front of her, both panting like dogs for a minute or so before Malfoy got up again. Ginny was very, very glad that she would not have to move again, she liked jogging and was fairly fast, she had a good stamina from all her quidditch, but that was just too much.

Ginny was still having trouble sleeping in the Slytherin dorms, she had never had to put up with the sounds of people sleeping before as she had soundproofed the hangings in her Gryffindor dorm and as the only Weasley girl she had always had her own room. So she just had to put up with listening to everyone sleep.

But, unknown to Ginny, she was not the only one listening to people sleep. Once or twice a week Draco would hear her having nightmares of her own, tossing and turning and muttering in her sleep, always waking with some cry of quickly stifled fear. She hated to show her weaknesses but was nowhere near as good at it as he was.

It was one of those nights where Ginny had had a nightmare. As usual on those nights, she found it impossible to get to sleep again. She was sure when she woke up that Malfoy was awake as well, but she was sure he would just ignore her if she said anything and feign sleep. She knew that Malfoy had managed to get some sleep as a few hours later she heard him wake from his nightmare. Every night the same time. "Swap you." She said suddenly. "My nightmare for yours." He just laughed.  
>"Oh Weasley. Even if they were of equal exchange, you wouldn't want to be in my head."<p>

Unfortunately it didn't seem that Ginny was going to have a huge amount of choice in that matter.

Draco and Ginny were sat outside on the grounds enjoying the unusually warm weather, doing homework of course, when Draco looked up to see Pansy making her way towards him. Crap. He turned away and tried to ignore her, a hard feat as she was now yelling his name. Ginny looked up, wondering who the hell was yelling for Malfoy that loudly and annoyingly when she saw Pansy. Who else would it have been?

"Can't that stupid bitch leave him alone for just five seconds?" she thought angrily, trying to get back to concentrating on her transfiguration homework. Draco looked up suddenly, aware of Ginny's voice but sure she hadn't spoken. He didn't have time to ponder the matter further however as Pansy was now here.

"_There_ you are Draco _darling_! I was wondering where you'd gone!"

"Dear god bitch, just get to the point and piss off!" he thought, still trying to ignore her. Ginny laughed, surprised and amused that Malfoy had told Pansy to leave him alone. She looked up, not wanting to miss Pansy's expression at this point, but then noticed that both Malfoy and Pansy were staring at her. It seemed like Malfoy hadn't even said anything. She was sure she'd heard him tell her to piss off! Pansy gave her a weird and slightly disgusted look then turned back to Malfoy and continued.

"Talk to me Draco sweetheart! We never spend any time together anymore!" she wined, sitting down on Draco's lap. Ginny felt she was going to be sick, but not nearly as much as Draco. Trying hard not to retch he pushed Pansy off his lap and got up quickly.

"I may vomit." He thought, turning away to hide his face, he could not prevent himself from retching slightly. Ginny looked over to Pansy so see if she'd heard him this time, surely she must've done? Ginny had heard perfectly clearly. Unfortunately for Ginny she didn't have to look far to find Pansy as Malfoy had shoved her towards Ginny.

"Never mind Malfoy, I think _I'm_ going to be sick." She thought, grimacing as she shuffled backwards away from Pansy.

Draco turned around; ready to laugh at the expression on Pansy's face now Ginny had said that. But judging by the way Pansy was still staring at him rather than Ginny, who was still edging away, she hadn't heard Ginny. He passed a confused look to Ginny before deciding that now was the right time to take control of the situation. He looked down at Pansy who was still on the floor then walked over to Ginny. He grabbed her arm and pulled her up, much to her surprise.

"Parkinson," he said turning back to her, slightly amused at her bewildered expression at his helping up a Weasley, "You disgust, repulse and revolt me. You make me physically sick. Now will you please finally except that I am not interested in you and just fuck off!" He seized Ginny's arm again and walked off with her, putting an arm around her waist as he did so. He was aware that they were probably receiving quite a few looks but completely unperturbed by them as this would hopefully get Pansy off his case, at least for the rest of the day.

"Malfoy, what the hell did you just do?" asked Ginny, as soon as they were up at the castle again. Her confusion had rendered her silent up until now, but now she wanted the situation explained.

"Not entirely sure Weasley." He replied, still with his arm around her waist. "Do you reckon we're out of sight yet?"

"Yes."

"Good." He said, letting go of her. "Sorry about that, I just didn't think I could stand it much longer."

"And here was me thinking that the Slytherin Prince and the Slytherin Slag were meant for one another." Thought Ginny with a grin. To her surprise, Malfoy laughed.

"Hell no, can't stand the stupid bint, unless I get seriously bored of course…" he told her.

"Errm, Malfoy. I didn't say anything." She said, confused.

"What? Yes you did. You said me and Pansy were meant for each other." He told her, bemused.

"Errm, no. I thought it, but I didn't say anything." They stopped and looked at each other. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me." She said in disbelief.

"Weasley!" he said, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her to face him. "How many floors to I have in my house?" He asked, practically yelling at her. He thought the answer and waited for her response.

"Twelve." She said confidently. "Hang on; you have a _twelve_ storey house? That's not a house Malfoy! That's not even a bloody mansion!" Malfoy fell back and leant against the wall with his head in his hands.

"Oh crap, this is not good, this is so not good!" he murmured over and over.

"You have twelve storeys in your house?" He stood up straight again and stared at her.

"Weasley, can we focus here? We can see into each other's heads, surely that is more important that the size of my house?"

"Oh right, right, focus." She muttered distractedly. "Oh shit, this is bad. Shit, shit SHIT!"

"Now you get our problem Weasley."

They decided to pretend that nothing had happened and continue with their normal lives and not bother mentioning it. Fortunately now that they knew about it there were able to open and close it with conscious control which meant they did not simply have unlimited access into the other's mind. They skipped dinner as neither of them was feeling particularly hungry and stayed in the common room instead.

"Draco!" greeted Blaise. Draco got up from where he and Ginny had been sitting and went over to sit with Blaise instead. "Well Draco my friend, the good news is you've shaken off Pansy, temporarily. The bad news is that she's spread it around that you and Weasley are now going out." Blaise smirked, he loved being the first to deliver news like this.

"Well Blaise I've got even worse news for you. Not only are we stuck with each other, we are now in each other's heads." Blaise choked on his bottle of butterbeer. After his coughing fit had subsided he looked back up at Draco, now with slightly watery eyes.

"Shit. That is worse."

"Well aren't you helpful Blaise. Funnily enough I had figured that out on my own. Fortunately it is only a voluntary connection at the moment but this really isn't good." Blaise was no good at emotional stuff so he did the only thing he could think of and offered Draco a drink. Fortunately the butterbeer did seem to help a bit and once he'd finished he looked marginally better.

"Why do people think I'm going out with Weasley?"  
>"Oh come off it Draco!" said Blaise, exasperated. "You rejected Pansy then walked off the grounds with her with your arm around her waist, what did you expect people to think?"<p>

"Fair point." Said Draco rather vacantly, reaching for another butterbeer. He sat there in silence for a while drinking then drained the bottle and stood up. "As much as I'd like to stay here all night drinking your butterbeer, I think I should probably go to bed. I wouldn't put it past Weasley to deck me if I got drunk. Night Blaise, see you later." He walked off to the dormitory, calling Ginny through their newfound mental connection.

She emerged from the bathroom in her pyjamas to find Draco sitting on the bed facing her. "By the way Weasley, more bad news." He told her as she sat down on her bed.

"More bad news? Merlin, I don't think I can handle more. Can't you tell me tomorrow?" She asked, careful not to plead. Never, ever plead around Slytherins, Malfoy had told her the first time she had done that, after a particularly gruelling run.

"No, I think you really need to know this tonight." He advised her grimly.

"Go on then." She groaned, getting into bed.

"The school thinks we're going out." He said bluntly. No point beating around the bush.

"The school thinks WHAT? Oh, my, _god_ Malfoy! Why the fuck do they think that?" she screamed.

"Calm it Weasley, it's not that bad." He told her, mildly offended at this reaction. "And why do you think?" Ginny decided that she was going to have to kill him. No one else would ever survive doing this to her, unless of course they lost a ball in the process, and for some reason she didn't really feel like doing that to Malfoy.

"Anyway, thought you might want to know before tomorrow." He said simply, turning around and taking off his school shirt. He was already in his pyjama bottoms, a pair of bluey grey silk shorts, so fortunately he only had his top to put on. To her annoyance Ginny found herself staring at his shoulder blades and thinking that even his back was perfectly toned (damn it Ginny, not good). Unfortunately he chose not to put on a top and while he got into bed she found herself staring at his amazingly muscular chest and thinking what it would be like to (no Ginny, just no.)…  
>Ginny pulled herself out of this reverie just in time, she did not want to be caught staring at him, his ego was one that did not need a boost.<p>

The next morning at breakfast Ginny and Draco were extra careful around each other, neither wanting to add fuel to the theory that they were going out. Draco was receiving daggers from some of Ginny's fellow Gryffindors and a lot of approving looks from his fellow Slytherins while Ginny got rather disgusted looks that suggested she was insane from almost everyone except Pansy and her group who was glaring daggers at her jealously. It seemed that gossip had travelled as fast as ever through the school. Even some of the teachers were looking at them oddly. Both reacted in different ways, Ginny refused to look at anyone, not wanting to meet their horrified glances, and Draco stared coolly at anyone who dared to look at him, challenging them to say anything. Both were determined to have this rumour quashed before too long, hopefully before someone saw fit to notify the Weasleys who Ginny had so far neglected to tell of her bonding.

As soon as Ginny got up from the Slytherin table she was accosted by her best friends, Amy and Colin who grabbed her arm and dragged her, and therefore Malfoy too, outside.

"Please for the love of fuck Ginny!" Yelled the usually mild-mouthed Amy as soon as they were out of earshot of the hall, "Please tell me that you are not seriously dating this, this…" words failed the girl whose fury was quite disproportionate to her appearance. Colin Creevy too looked absolutely speechless with anger and Ginny hastened to reassure them,

"No, no Amy don't worry I'm not dating Malfoy." Malfoy had moved as far away from Ginny and her friends as possible but was, thankfully, allowing her to have this conversation now rather than just dragging her away.

"Colin are you okay?" Ginny asked her friend, very much concerned as Colin's usually pale skin seemed to have gone scarlet. Amy too looked as though she had put on huge amounts of blusher all over her pretty face, her English Rose complexion now rose red.

"I'm fine Gin, better now anyway." He said in a voice of forced calm,

"Merlin, did you seriously think I would actually even consider dating ferret-face?" giggled Ginny, now rather amused by how worked up her friends had gotten over something so hugely unrealistic. Amy forced a smile,

"Of course, this is really stupid Gin, we really shouldn't have believed it for half a second. We're sorry Ginny." She said apologetically. Ginny suddenly realised that she really should be rather offended that even her best friends had thought that she would even for one single second consider the possibility of dating Draco Malfoy, the infamous Deatheater ferret.

Ginny woke from her nightmare with her usual small shriek, but this one had been particularly bad. Usually she dreamed of all the things that Tom had made her do in her first year and that was bad enough, but the worst ones were always of Tom sitting on the end of her bed, telling her that he had a little job for her to do. Those dreams were always so real, as though he really was there again and it was all going to happen again and she was going to be possessed and was going to have to write in blood and do all those things she had had to do.

This one was awful, he just had "one last little favour to ask". It had always been "just one more" and it scared the shit out of her. She lay in bed, going over all the details of her dream, half expecting him to walk in at any moment and sit down at the end of her bed with "one last thing". Just thinking about it made her heart beat faster with a fear she would never admit to feeling.

"Take a shower." She almost screamed. Who the bloody hell was that? Then she remembered. The mind connection. "What?" she sent him. What was he on about now?

"Take a shower. It helps. It clears your mind, wakes you up. Gets you out of the dream." He sent back. She wanted to ask exactly what experience he had with nightmares. She still found it a little hard to believe that his life was anything other than ideal. She got out of bed and went into the bathroom, turning the shower on nice and warm. "Cold showers are better. Warm just makes you drowsy. Cold makes the world more real." With that he withdrew from her mind. She didn't particularly want to take any more of his advice but, with Tom still fresh in her mind, she turned the shower in to its coldest setting.

"Ah _shit_, holy mother of FUCK that's cold!" but strangely he was right. No dream could make her this cold. She could take no more of a minute of the icy jet however and turned it to warm for a while before going back to bed.

She was having a really nice dream. It was Christmas at the Burrow, and somehow also her birthday and she was just about to blow out the candles on the Christmas cake when the dream changed. She was not longer at home but in a cold thin passage she didn't recognise. It was dark and she was alone. She walked down the passage a little way, fear flooding though her like ice. Somehow she knew that this was not her dream but Draco's. She must have subconsciously reached out and connected to him.

As soon as she realised this the dream seemed to have noticed too and it made her feel that she didn't belong. Instead of really being there and seeing things properly, she just saw flashes. There was a load of dark figures, then a white snake's face and two rings of red fire, then pain, horrible, burning pain and it killed like hell and she was looking at an arm and there was a horrible black splodge on it. Then it was like having a pebble dropped into a pool as a large drop of something fell and a tsunami wave of fizzing spread over the arm and the black was replaced with red, red blood and it was so painful she thought she was going to die. It was excruciating agony and it burned like nothing else in the world and there was still blood pouring down her arm. Then all the blood poured off her arm and she saw a flash of a horrible burn and then everything went black and she felt like she was being called but she didn't want to go, then the black went absolute and she saw a flash of green and someone fell and her arm burned more painfully again and she woke up. So that was Draco's dream.

She tried to pretend she was still asleep was he woke up too. He ripped through his hangings and staggered, half running toward the bathroom.

He woke up panting hard and covered in cold sweat. Just looking at his arm wouldn't be enough to get rid of the feeling of being called by the Dark Lord again. He got out of bed and sprinted to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind him, before getting into the shower and turning it on full blast to the coldest setting. It felt like he had fallen through an ice sheet on a very deep lake. Every inch of him protested against the frozen shower but he ignored it. It still wasn't cold enough to get him out of his dream.

"Glacio!" each individual water droplet turned to ice before hitting him. This was better. Through the mental connection, which Ginny had not been able to turn off, she felt the ice spray hitting Draco and winced.

"Must've been a bad one." She thought. Only too late did she realise that this had accidentally been sent to Draco.

"What did you say?" it was his silkiest whisper, the one that scared the shit out of everyone. It meant he was furious, absolutely livid. Through their connection Ginny felt the anger boiling up inside up but he pushed it down, always keeping it under control. Which made her even more scared. "How long have you been in my head Weasley?" Ginny gulped. She could've lied, but since they were connected mentally he would find out at some point, even if he did believe it now.

"It just wouldn't shut, the connection I mean, it wouldn't go away and I didn't want it open. I was asleep too!"

Draco's anger went cold. Easier to use cold anger. "Get. Your. _Arse_. Out. Of. My. Head." He hissed, too much anger to say or do anything else. Ginny finally managed to break the connection between them, wondering what on earth that dream had been about.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning Draco woke Ginny at fall past six by yelling into her head. "Draco what the fuck are you doing?" she screamed back into his head. "It's fucking six in the fucking morning! What the fuck do you want?" Nope, she was still, definitely not a morning person, something reflected in her language.

"Just get your arse out of bed and get dressed." With that he withdrew from her mind, leaving her now irrevocably awake and unable to sleep again. Grumbling, she decided she may as well get dressed, Draco would only be worse if she kept him waiting. She tied her hair back into something resembling respectable and left the bathroom. Draco was waiting for her in the dormitory, looking instantly perfect as always. As soon as she had shut the bathroom door behind her he grabbed her wrist and began to drag her down the stairs.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" she screamed at him, she seemed to be asking this a lot lately. Draco didn't care. He continued to pull her along various corridors and after struggling in futile against his iron grip for the first five minutes she gave up and allowed herself to be lead; until they reached a passage that could only go to one place. "Snape's dungeon? Are you insane Malfoy? I'm not going down there!" He ignored her and she began to struggle again. It made no difference whatsoever and they were soon standing outside, no, bursting into Professor Snape's office.

"Mr Malfoy, Miss Weasley, what are you doing in my office?" Ginny turned to Draco; she had no idea what they were doing there, only that she didn't want to be there.

"You never mentioned side effects." Draco hissed at Snape.

"What?" snapped Snape.

"You never said anything about side effects. Such as a mental connection. _That doesn't need to be consciously initiated_." He hissed again, his voice dangerously quiet.

Snape looked at him, evaluating him. "I couldn't be sure this would happen. When did it start?"

"Never mind when it started! It wasn't constant then. We could choose to start it. Now it can start in our sleep and there is nothing we can do to stop it." Draco's mask was beginning to slip, his anger bubbling over onto his expression. Even Snape seemed aware that not saying anything would be downright suicidal at this point. Ginny was sure that neither of them had ever seen Draco so furious, and at least she was stood over by the door away from him.

"I believe that this bond is also temporary. It will probably be necessary to wait for the effects to wear off." Draco's face had gone from smooth mask to positively homicidal. "Miss Weasley, wait outside the door." Ginny and Draco both moved so that Ginny could be outside Snape's door, which he had charmed to be both imperturbable and completely soundproof. "Draco what is it?" he wasted no time in getting to the bottom of Draco's anger. It was bad enough when he hid it but when it got out of his control, that just wasn't thought about. The Malfoy temper was infamous; it was too much to hope that no one would get hurt if he couldn't control it.

"This connection gets her inside my head and I don't want anyone in my head, at all, ever. My home is not my home anymore, my body has received a different scar from everyone I've met but my mind; my mind is the one place that no one can get to me and I am not about to give up that last place of sanctuary. It may not be much of one but it's all I've got left and I will not let that be destroyed too." Draco spat these words, completely giving up on his careful cultivated façade. Snape went over to his desk and pulled a bottle out of one of the draws.

"Here." Draco caught the bottle with seekers reflexes and looked questioningly at Snape. "I know that by now you are an expert at occlomency, that will hold during the day. That is a potion for dreamless sleep, a few drops every night and it will not matter if she can get into your head while you are asleep as there will be nothing to find. Clear?" Draco nodded in reply. Probably as close as he could get to thank you. "You may go now." Draco nodded again, pausing for a moment to compose his features before leaving the room.

After the first few nights Draco refused to use the sleeping draft. He found it dulled his senses and stopped him being alert, two things he could not tolerate, but he continued to accept the bottles from Snape. Just in case. So he continued his nightmares and kept waking up at exactly two a.m., only now it was Ginny who woke up too. He worked hard at his occlomency so she never saw his dreams again, but that did not stop his emotions spreading into her too, and the fear and the pain and the dread were always enough to wake her as well. Neither of them really slept anymore as Ginny's nightmares increased in frequency waking them both up as well. Draco survived on a heavy diet of coffee and rejuvenating spells which he sometimes used on Ginny as well, when he was feeling generous.

Draco got so little sleep he gave up trying completely. He knew that he would fall asleep between half one and two then have his nightmare and wake up again; there was really no point in even trying to change it. Ginny however did not give up, she really should've done as she rarely woke from her nightmares, she just screamed until Draco woke her.

One night it seemed particularly bad, she was screaming and choking and crying desperately. Draco got up and leant over her to shake her shoulders and wake her up. That night however she seemed to be fighting something in her dream as she kept clawing the air in front of her. One of her blows caught Draco's exposed forearm. "Ah shit! Cut your bloody nails Weasley!" Ginny woke as she felt a drop of something on her cheek. She wiped it off her face with her finger and examined it, the red smear was distinctive enough. "Bloody hell!" she cried, sitting up.

"Relax Weasley; it's not you who's bleeding." Ginny turned to Malfoy who appeared to be sucking something on his arm. He took his arm away from his face to show her a small but surprisingly deep cut which was bleeding nicely.

"What the-?"

"Cut your nails Weasley." Muttered Draco angrily.

"Oh shit, Malfoy, did I do that?" whispered Ginny. Draco nodded. "Oh my god I'm so sorry!" she said, still staring at his arm. He smiled slightly and shrugged, but she didn't really notice. "Malfoy, what's that on your arm?" she asked in a small voice. Draco snatched his arm back and turned around, getting back into his bed and wrenching his hangings shut.

"You'd better go to bed Weasley." His tone made it perfectly clear that she was not to say any more. Ginny cursed herself inwardly, furious at herself. Finally they were getting along almost well, then she had to go and say something stupid about the scar on his arm. Idiot Ginny.

Ginny's nightmares continued, if anything getting worse each time. She was now having them almost every night and she kept needing waking up from Draco, who made sure from then on to always wear a hoodie with the sleeves pulled right down to his wrists. This was partly for protection from the nails she didn't really want to cut, but mostly to hide the mark he didn't want her to see. Not only did her nightmares increase in frequency, they got worse.

Fortunately for Draco he was no longer attacking him, but would rather wake up crying hysterically. One such night she felt herself being shaken awake from the worst one yet. She sobbed madly and pulled Draco down towards her, her arms around his neck, burying her face into his chest. Had she seen his expression (at any other time) she would've laughed. He looked utterly shocked and a little scared. Gingerly he patted her on the back, but when this made no difference he gave in. "Shit." He muttered. He put his arm around her back and another under her legs, lifting her up onto his bed. He knew that both of them probably shouldn't be under his blanket, and since it was his bed and he was really hoping she would leave soon, he decided that it should be him under the blanket. Not very chivalrous he knew but chivalry came in the Gryffindor job description, not Slytherin.

She continued to cry into him and he put an arm around her shoulder. With the other he held the book he was reading. It was useless him trying to comfort her, he knew, so he just waited for her to get it all out. Half an hour later and she finally seemed finished. "You okay Weasley?" he asked her putting his book down. She nodded. "Good."

"Malfoy?" he frowned slightly, he didn't like that name. "I don't want to go back to sleep." Draco nodded, understanding fully but without a clue what he was supposed to do about it. "Play me at chess?" she asked slyly.

"Weasley, you do know it's" he checked his clock, "One o'clock in the morning!" She just smiled at him again.

"Afraid of losing?" she taunted

"You're on." They got up and Draco pulled out his chess board with his old chess set. Old chess sets were always better as they trusted you more. Draco's of course didn't look old. He smiled at the pieces, mahogany and ivory with real jewels for eyes and sword hilts. Ginny smiled at Draco, confident of her win. The Weasleys had always been excellent at chess. What she didn't know was that Draco was perfectly aware of this reputation, never having forgotten Ron winning all those points for Gryffindor in first year for it, and that Draco himself was an excellent player.

Everyone assumed that Draco spent all his time at home playing with ridiculously expensive toys and screaming, but this was not true. His mother was prone to migraines so Draco rarely screamed, and he really didn't have that many toys. His father had not wanted a spoiled son so despite appearances, Draco was not spoiled. Lucius had also not wanted a stupid son, so Draco had been taught to play chess. There really wasn't much for an only child to do (quietly) in an empty house filled with things he couldn't touch, so Draco played chess. A lot.

Ginny gave Malfoy what could best be described as a smirk as she headed purposefully across the board, watching him send his pieces to the most ridiculous places where surely even he knew they would be taken. About half an hour in and Draco sat back in his chair, looking suddenly bored. "What is it Malfoy? Scared you might lose? Want to give up now?" she teased.

"No." he replied simply. "Checkmate."

"Don't be ridiculous! It can't be…" she checked the board as he got up and sat down on his bed. "Bloody hell, you bastard!" she whispered to herself. Sighing she went and got into her bed too. "Night Malfoy. See you in the morning." She said quietly.

"Night Weasley, but I'm afraid you're wrong. See you in half an hour." He shut his hangings and rolled over, still wearing his hoodie. Half an hour later and both woke in cold sweat, Malfoy stumbling off into the bathroom before Ginny even had her eyes open properly. She checked her clock as she heard the shower start. Exactly two a.m. Exactly half an hour after their chess game. Bastard.

Their chess games became a regular nightly occurrence to fill in the time between Ginny's dreams and Draco's. They decided to use their telepathic connection to avoid waking anyone, Draco knew Zabini would wake easily and not let anyone know he was awake to spy on them. He did not like being spied on. Ginny was horrified and amazed that Draco managed to win every time, and without her even noticing. One particularly bad night not long after it began Ginny slumped back in her chair in defeat. Draco had just beaten her three times in a row, each time quicker than the last.

"When the hell did you learn to play chess like that?" she asked him.

"When, not where." He said quietly. "I guess by that you mean that you've always assumed that I do very little in my free time except play with expensive things and yell for more?" Ginny squirmed a little under this accurate analysis and blushed slightly, trying to hide it by setting up the board again. "While I feel it right to inform you that I don't have many toys and I have rarely ever screamed at home." Ginny couldn't help looking a little sceptical.

"Really? You, Draco Malfoy, don't have many toys and have never yelled for stuff you want, even when you were little?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"Correct Weasley. I didn't yell because father has important work to do and has never liked to be disturbed and mother has a fragile disposition so if I was loud she would get awful headaches and I never wanted that. So I kept quiet. I didn't have toys because father never really knew what to do with children, nor did he particularly want one. If he did have one he didn't want it to behave childishly. He didn't want it to be stupid or spoiled, so I played chess. And when you spend seventeen years in a house like mine, you play chess a lot."

There was no use in Ginny denying that she was surprised. Draco didn't mind overly much, everyone was surprised when he told them that he wasn't spoiled and hadn't spent his life screaming for more things. Ginny blushed a little, suddenly aware of how everyone including herself had just assumed so much which wasn't true.

"No use being embarrassed Weasley, everyone likes to think they know me but very few actually do." He told her, absently watching two pawns beat the shit out of each other.

"How many people actually do know anything about you?" she asked him, now extremely curious.

"Inside Hogwarts? Two."

"Two! Just two people in this entire castle know you?" Ginny was shocked, how had he managed that?

"Only these two have any idea." He told her.

"Who are these two lucky people?"

"Blaise because I've known him for years and he happens to be one of the most bloody intelligent and observant bastards you will ever meet." He smiled slightly. "And you, because I haven't been able to get rid of you whatever I'm doing, and because you know that you don't know me. That alone puts you ahead of most people." Ginny was now even more shocked that she, a Weasley and a Gryffindor, was one of two people out of hundreds to know anything about the Slytherin Prince. But she was learning from him and did not let her feelings show.

"I still hardly know anything though. I mean, I still don't know what went on in that dream I saw, or what happened to your arm." She had hardly finished her sentence when Draco got up quickly, not saying a word and turned away, throwing the hangings shut around him. She had really annoyed him this time she could tell. Malfoy had two masks; one was a mask through which flickers of emotion could be glimpsed that was usually just him looking bored, the other was a steel wall, impenetrable, no emotions whatsoever showed through even for a second. He only used that when he was seriously pissed off, murderously so. Shit.

Half an hour later and he was in the bathroom again, drowning out his sub consciousness in ice cold water. "Well you've done it this time! What the hell did you say to him to get him so pissed off?"

"Zabini?" asked Ginny, surprised. She had been in Draco's dorm for weeks now and Zabini had not so much as acknowledged her existence.

"Well done Weasley." He mocked, "Of course it's me, you don't expect it to be Goyle now do you? Anyway what the fuck did you say to him? I haven't seen him that blanked since, well…" Zabini trailed off but his question still stood.

"I, well he said that only two people at Hogwarts know him, you and apparently me as well, and… Did I say something funny?" for Blaise had just let out a great "Ha" of mirth.

"Oh excellent! I had actually no idea Weasley!"

"No idea of what? What's so funny?" Ginny was getting angry now, she hated being excluded from jokes.

"Oh it's nothing really Weasley, it's just impossible to know exactly how much of Draco he's shown you. Most people don't even scratch the surface but even I never knew I'd gone that deep!" Blaise seemed genuinely elated with this piece of information.

"Yeah, anyway." Continued Ginny, "I said I don't really know him because he's hardly told me anything. Like, he's never told me his dream or what happened to his arm-" Blaise had stopped smiling and was now sat bolt upright, staring at her as if she was mad.

"You, Weasley, you said WHAT? Weasley you total twat! I thought you were supposed to be smart you moron!" he yelled, hitting himself in the face.

"What? What the hell did I do?" asked Ginny

"You total pillock! I assume this is the dream you saw? Did you or did you not also see him flip the fuck out over that dream? And his arm, have you or have you not noticed that he now wears a hoodie to hide his arm at all times?"

"He wears that hoodie to hide that scar? I thought it was just to protect his arms when he woke me up, cause one night I accidentally scratched him."

"And then what happened, don't tell me, you noticed the burn, pointed it out and he did his famous impression of a brick wall and shut you out?"

"Well, yeah.."

"And you never saw that as a hint not to mention it?"

"Well yeah but I was curious, same with the dream. I saw it, I wanted to know what it was. You don't know do you?" She asked suddenly hopeful.

"I can't say for sure." He said grimly. "But I can take a guess, and you won't like it. Listen Weasley, don't piss him off okay. It's not fun for anyone, Draco cause he's pissed off, you cause you're stuck with him and me for the same reason. And also, he's my best mate, I don't like seeing him do that. It's not good." With that, Blaise signified their conversation to be over by lying back down and shutting his eyes as though he'd never been awake. Ginny was just about to start feeling a little insulted at this abrupt end when Malfoy came out of the bathroom and got back into bed.

"Come on Draco, just eat, fuck, _anything_!" said Blaise the next morning at breakfast. "Listen mate," he dropped his voice, glancing over at Ginny who was sat a little way down the table. "She doesn't have a clue about anything, so stop being a brick wall and have some toast!" Draco continued to ignore him. "You eat this toast or I will tell everyone that… Whoa, okay only joking!" said Blaise quickly, acutely aware of Draco's wand now sticking into his stomach. "Come on, you know I'm only joking! It's not like it's worth that much to me is it. You know I wouldn't tell, you don't need a wand to prove it." Blaise was relieved that Draco's wand was returned to its owner's pocket. Usually he wouldn't have been worried about that, but Weasley had got him in such a mood he was a little dangerous this morning. "Okay, one last deal." Said Blaise with a glint in his eye. "Either you eat something or I tell Parkinson who is heading right this way that you need feeding up!" Immediately Draco had a piece of toast stuffed into his mouth, anything to avoid Parkinson.

"Blaise, let's go, Weasley, we're leaving _now_." The three of them scuttled out of the hall, Draco still eating his piece of toast as they fled from Pansy towards Potions.

Malfoy was very glad that there was no longer a chance of being caught alone with Snape. Previously Snape was the one professor that he had respected; liked even, but now he did not think remaining in his presence long would be a good idea. As long as they had known each other, Snape was a good friend of his father's and also a Deatheater. After going through so much to get rid of his damn mark, Draco did not want to be put into a situation that might lead to getting it back. However, now he and Ginny were stuck together and Snape was far too clever to risk being overheard by anyone, especially someone so close to the Order, he knew the Potions master would not bring up the burn on his arm he was so sensitive about that had replaced his mark.

"Why don't you just get rid of it?" asked Blaise exasperatedly one evening. "She's getting curious and you're really touchy about it, not that I say I can blame you but…" he finished with a grimace. "Why do you even want it there Draco?" Draco looked up at him, fire in his eyes. He repressed it and answered,

"Has she asked about my mark?"

"Your mark? No Draco, why should she?"

"Because she went out with Potter and his best friend was her brother, one of them will have told her I had a mark. The scar distracts from what isn't there with what is so I highly doubt she will notice it unless there is a direct link or someone points it out."

"So that's why Draco, must admit, that's actually very clever." Said Blaise, unusually without a hint of patronisation.

"There is also that it is a reminder for me. It reminds me what happens if you are foolish, if you do as you are told. I don't want to make the same mistakes again and with this I will not forget." He looked over at Ginny who was sat on her own on the very edge of their boundary doing some homework. "I'd better go. Have you noticed how Nott's been coming up earlier ever night? Decent guy, but a real perve." Blaise smiled as he watched his friend call his supposed worst enemy up to the dormitory early to protect her modesty. Say what you like about Draco, it's probably true, but under it all, he's a good bloke.

"I will beat you this time." Promised Ginny, setting her first pawn in to motion.

Unfortunately, Ginny was wrong and Draco won again. "Who the hell taught you to play like this?" asked Ginny, falling back into her chair in disbelief. This was just getting embarrassing.

"House elves taught me to play but once I got the hang of it I played by myself." Replied Draco, setting up the board again.

"You played by yourself? Why? Wasn't there anyone else to play with?" Ginny was actually shocked. Growing up in her house with six brothers you did nothing by yourself, especially not playing.

"The house elves were only meant to teach me, when I had learned how my father didn't make them anymore. Sometimes my mother would play but she's always been rather fragile so not often and occasionally, very very occasionally, my father would play." That was only very rarely. Lucius was busy, but sometimes he would test his son, see if he was able to beat him. Usually Draco had lost initially, but slowly he began to pull it in his direction until he was winning almost every time. That was the only time he ever properly smiled at Draco, when Draco managed to beat him.

"What about friends?" asked Ginny, "Did you never play your friends at chess?"

"I was never a child Weasley, Father said friends are for children, so I didn't have any." Ginny's jaw dropped in shock and horror.

"You're joking! Not allowed friends! What the hell did you do?" Draco smiled slightly at her reaction, "I played chess. It's not that there weren't other children sometimes, but it was always made crystal clear to both of us from our fathers that I was more important and would say what to do. There were people, just not _friends_."

"That's horrible! Did your father hate you or something?" There was a crash as Draco knocked over the chess board. He got up quickly, his face utterly blank and his hangings ripped shut around him without him even having to reach for his wand.

"Okay Weasley, what did you say this time?" Drawled Zabini from across the room after Draco had gone into the shower. Ginny sat up to face Zabini and he did the same.

"I, well, he said his father didn't let him have friends and I asked, I asked if his father hated him or something." There was no need for Ginny to ask why Zabini had just thrown himself back onto his bed with a groan. He hit himself in the face again and covered his face with his hands.

"Weasley, you total, utter moron." He said, muffled slightly through his hands. He sat up to face her again, "Surely I don't have to spell out every taboo for you? Even Goyle knows not to talk about Lucius! Surely anyone with half a brain cell could've figured that to anyone an imprisoned Deatheater father is off limits!" Moaned Zabini, clearly envisaging the awful mood he was going to have to put up with his friend in. "Merlin Weasley, you are so lucky." He almost whispered.

"Lucky? How the hell is this lucky? He's completely shut off from everyone, in no way is that good."

"You Weasley are very lucky you said that to Draco, this year when he's tired and recently beaten you." Zabini informed her. "Any other combination and you're toast. Had you said that to Flint for instance, you and I would not be having this lovely conversation here because your jaw would be somewhere near where your stomach is, but your stomach wouldn't be there because he'd have punched a hole right through it. Understand?" Ginny did understand and it now occurred to her, going over her list of Slytherins, that had she said it to pretty much anyone else she wouldn't have enough of her head intact to think at all.

"Why everything else? Like him being tired and saying it this year?" Zabini smiled at her.

"Because he's tired he can't be bothered, because he's already beaten you, he won't be so harsh and because it's this year… Well, let's just say he's changed since last year." Zabini turned around and the conversation ended. A minute later Malfoy was getting back into bed.

The next morning Blaise didn't bother trying to persuade Draco to eat. It was Ginny he was trying to persuade, she looked utterly terrified.

"Listen Weasley, not that it's really my problem but what the hell's the matter with you? I'm now stuck with two people who won't eat, talk or move, I know what his problem is, what's yours?" he muttered to her, irritated. Not surprising really since everyone around him was doing this and none of it was his fault.

"It's Malfoy, his occlomency is weak this morning and I'm getting all these _horrible_ things, really horrible! There's pain, loads and loads of it and anger and, he's so angry and it's really scaring me! There are just so many emotions I can't even name them but I can tell you that not one of them is remotely good and it's…" Ginny suppressed a sob as Blaise looked over anxiously at his friend. He had known today would be bad, but if Draco had let down his occlomency this was really bad. Draco's face was still completely blank and he sat opposite Blaise completely still and unresponsive, ignoring the world. Even Pansy had realised that today was not a good day.

Draco was aware that he was doing what Blaise called his "impression of a brick wall" again but he hardly cared. He hated the judgements placed on himself and his family, "did your father hate you?" of course he fucking didn't! He just didn't show it the same way. He knew his father wasn't your usual image of a caring father but he didn't hate his son! Most parents show their love through physical displays of affection, through hugs and kisses and comforting words.

But Lucius was not like that. That was why everyone thought that Draco's father had never loved him, because people didn't see what they thought love looked like. Lucius did not and could not subscribe to the usual version of paternal love, only those who knew him could recognise something he loved. Nothing about Lucius was obvious, Draco had learned from his father how to shield his face from any emotion, when Lucius liked something it looked like he did not care, when he disliked something, it looked like he did not care. When he loved or hated something, it looked like he did not care. With Lucius Malfoy, appearances were just that, appearances.

Nothing was how it looked, so instead of seeing what he looked like, you had to see what he did. Even for those who knew him best, it was difficult to distinguish the difference between love and hate. With both he would put the person to whom the emotion was directed through hell, if he hated them, for punishment, if he loved them, because he loved them. Lucius would do anything to protect that which he loved. For most parents, protection is done with shielding arms or comforting words, but Lucius did not believe in that. Lucius had no problem with mortality, whether it was his own or someone else's, so he knew that someday he would die and no longer be able to protect his son.

What would be the point of shielding his son from the world if someday he would not be there to shield him and Draco would be suddenly hit by the world? His aim was that Draco knew the world from a young age and was able to stand on his own against it; this was his way of protecting his son. Now when Lucius died Draco would know everything he needed to make his way in the world entirely unaided, no longer needing anyone. Lucius had done well; Draco never had really needed anyone. But until the day that Lucius died he would forever be pulling the strings, making sure that when he did go his son would be the best off he could be, he would ensure that his son made the right decisions. He would do whatever it took to get his son to make the right decision, he would rather kill Draco than let him make the wrong choice.

Sometimes it was hard for Draco to see that his father cared about him, after some particularly gruelling thing that he had been told was for his own good, he just found it a little hard to believe. It was at times like these that he needed the occasional look his father might give him, a look that told him that he had done well and that Lucius was proud. These looks were short and rare but that just made them more special. When Draco beat his father at chess, he received that look. When he won at quidditch he would get that look. His father never missed his quidditch matches, not one, he knew. When he won his father would step out of the shadows and show himself, when he lost, no one but Draco would ever now he had been there.

And occasionally, oh so very, very occasionally, Draco would get something more. Gryffindor had only ever lost two matches while Draco had been at Hogwarts, one was to Hufflepuff, the other was to him. Lucius had always been perfect at hiding his emotions, even his eyes went blank. But this one time, this one Slytherin victory over Gryffindor, his father had smiled. No one else would have noticed it, his lips did not move, but his eyes smiled, his eyes told Draco he was proud. He had walked over to his son, placed a hand on his shoulder and stared at him. Draco blanked his face and stared up at his father, both of them seeming deadly serious, but smiling with their eyes. Draco treasured that memory.

He looked up and saw Blaise looking concerned and Ginny looked positively terrified. Oh shit, he hadn't been working occlomency, no wonder she looked scared. Slowly, with difficultly, he shut down their connection and Ginny's expression turned to relief. Suddenly Draco got up, still ignoring everyone else, and walked out. Ginny got up quickly and hurried after him to avoid the embarrassment of being dragged along the floor behind him. He turned a corner and when Ginny, a few metres behind him, reached it he was out of sight. She guessed that he must've gone into the deserted classroom next to her and tried the door. Her suspicions were confirmed when it refused to open.

Inside the classroom Draco had pulled up the sleeve of his robes and was just staring at his arm, reminding himself of the feeling he had had when he had poured acid onto it, the excruciating pain, the burning that nothing else could cause, nothing else could burn that badly, nothing else could cause that pain, not even being branded in the first place. He had gone through all that so that he could live, so start living! After a few minutes just standing there, breathing heavily he pulled his sleeve back down to cover his arm and unlocked the classroom door, walking out into the hall. _What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger._

Ginny wasn't sure what had changed but something had definitely improved. Malfoy's face was his usual mask, not the completely blank, dead looking one that blocked everything. Thanking any god that might be out there for this change she followed him off to Transfiguration.

Blaise didn't do Transfiguration but when he met them after his Herbology lesson he too noticed how much better his friend was. Being Blaise he didn't say anything however and just headed off to the library. This free second period was one of the only ones Ginny and her friends shared so they always met up in the library to talk.

"I can't believe this is like the only time we can see you!" moaned Amy, just like she did every time.

"Hey Amy! How's Justin?" Ginny greeted her, and then turned to her other friend once Amy was safely in full flow about her latest boyfriend. "Hey Colin! How's it going?" she asked, hugging him. Colin smiled,

"I'm okay Gin, how're you doing?" he asked, with a dark look at Malfoy who was sat at the furthest table he could get from her. They had an agreement, he would stay away when she wanted to talk with her friends in frees and break and she would stay away when he wanted to talk to his friends at the end of school.

"Don't worry Colin, it's fine. Malfoy's not actually that bad. Emotionally he's ruined for life but he's okay really. Honestly guys." She assured Colin, and Amy who had even stopped talking about her boyfriend to check how she was. "Are you sure you're holding up okay though Gin?" asked Amy, looking concerned."

"Yes guys, it's okay, Malfoy may be an arrogant twat but honestly-"

"She wasn't talking about Malfoy, Gin." Interrupted Colin, "Come on Ginny, your brother, your boyfriend and one of your best friends go off and try and kill themselves then you're stuck with a Slytherin git so you can't spend any time with anyone actually nice. You'd have to be downright lying to tell us you're doing great."

As much as Ginny didn't want to admit it, she was fine. Absolutely fine. Alright, she missed Colin and Amy sometimes, but she was fine without her brother, she hardly spent much time with Hermione anyway and, here was the worst thing, she didn't spend much time thinking about Harry either. This she really hated, she was supposed to be in love with him, what the hell changed?

Ginny decided that right now, lying was the best policy. "You're right guys, I'm not great but I can't do anything about that now can I?" her friends looked sympathetic but slightly reassured. Before Amy could get back into describing the many attributes of Justin Finch-Fletchley, Malfoy sent her that it was time for lunch. "Come on guys, let's go! Time for lunch!" she said, glad that Amy seemed to have run out of things to say about Justin.

"Will you sit with us today Ginny? Oh please, please, please!" begged Amy, Ginny just smiled.

"If you feel like sitting with Malfoy," she said, looking over her shoulder to him following a few metres behind, "Then sure, but since I don't think you do… I'll see you later all right guys?" they nodded and said goodbye and she turned away to the Slytherin table.

Ginny couldn't believe that Harry had slipped her mind so easily, just a month ago she had been crying over him, wondering how she was going to live without him, and now she was not only living without him but doing perfectly fine and not even remembering to miss him! She would have to do better to remember him, but then again, why bother? He had left her, not even told her when and where he was going. He had not bothered to send a single owl, make a single attempt at communication, and he had completely broken up with her. Did he even care? Was this just his way of getting rid of his best friend's annoying little sister without pissing off said friend? No, no of course not, Harry would never do that to her.


	4. Chapter 4

Ginny didn't really wake up the next morning, actually, she was revived. Late. Cursing Malfoy, who had woken her up without enough time to shower, Ginny hopped on the spot, trying to put on her tights before her time ran out and Malfoy and his friends woke up the boulders. "Three, two, one," she heard Malfoy counting down from outside the bathroom door. She burst out into the dormitory and got to the stairs just before the door snapped shut and Crabbe and Goyle were suspended by their ankles (in substitute of alarm clocks).

"Hey Gin." Said Colin, sitting down next to her in the library.

"GINNY! It feels like it's been ages!" cried Amy, taking the seat that Malfoy had just disappeared from opposite her. "We like, never see you anymore! It's just unfair!" Ginny laughed.

"So, good day so far Colin?" she asked.

"Only had two periods and today's shit." He announced proudly with a smile. "You Gin?" he cast a _look_ at Malfoy. Amy ignored this however; she was good at doing that.

"Oh come on Colin, today hasn't been that bad! Think of Potions! Hey Gin, guess what we made in Potions!" Ginny shrugged but knowing Amy, she knew she would have to guess. "Err, truth serum? Polyjuice potion? Shrinking solution? Oh, I give up! What did you make?" Amy giggled and pulled a small crystal bottle from her bag. "Err, Colin? Are you sure it's safe for Amy to be carrying that around?" asked Ginny, staring at the bottle and edging her chair back slightly.

"Fair point." Said Colin with a grimace, taking the potion away from Amy. "Here, you look after it Ginny. Obviously Amy's not trusted with it and I'm sure she nick it off me." He said in explanation, seeing Ginny's expression.

"By the way Amy, why do you have a bottle of amourtentia, the world's most powerful love potion, in your school bag?" Amy giggled and both of her friends sincerely hoped for a reasonable explanation.

"Well," Amy managed to say through her giggles, "you know how when you take a sample of something and Snape doesn't like you so he ruins it? I thought I'd take another sample just in case he knocked the first one off the desk or something, but he didn't so I didn't need it and I just put it in my bag." Her giggles overcame her again so Amy stopped talking. Ginny removed the stopper from the bottle cautiously and took a sniff. Steam began to spiral from the bottle and Ginny's nose was filled with three almost overpowering scents. First she smelled apple pie, the kind her mum made and she absolutely loved, it was her favourite dish of all time, then she could smell something that reminded her of quidditch, sort of like quaffle leather, broomstick polish and (although was slightly disgusted by this) the smell of quidditch robes after a game. The final scent puzzled her. It was a strong smell, kind of like sandal wood. Ginny had no idea why she was attracted to sandal wood, exactly what in her life linked her to sandalwood? Sure she liked it but it if was on liking the smell alone, surely she would've smelled her own perfume or something?

"Why are you guys staring at me?" asked Ginny. After sixteen years of living with Fred and George, you can hardly blame her for being suspicious.

"Nothing, we were just wondering what you smelled." Said Amy with an encouraging smile, the kind that told you there was something you were going to tell her. Ginny knew she would eventually but didn't want to cave this soon.

"You first Amy, what do you smell?" Amy sighed and Ginny offered the bottle to her friend to sniff.

"Mmm… I smell scented candles, you know, those really nice ones that are meant to be relaxing, and Honeyduke's chocolate and Justin's cologne!" giggled Amy.

"Really, Amy? Justin last?" asked Ginny, surprised that scented candles had come before the boyfriend the whole of Gryffindor, and probably most of the other houses as well, had heard so much about.

"Well obviously Ginny! The one you're most attracted to is always last!" she passed the bottle on to Colin who looked a little shocked then promptly passed it back to Ginny. "Oh no you don't Colin, if we're telling you ours then you're telling us yours!" Amy told him sternly. Colin looked a little dubious but sniffed the bottle anyway.

Sooo?" asked Amy

"Errm… I smell, and butterbeer, the stronger type though, and, you know that sort of smoky smell you get from those blue flames you put under cauldrons? Yeah that, and pine trees, you know, that really great smell they've got." So now it was just Ginny left, her two friends stared at her expectantly.

"Fine, fine. I smell apple pie, a quiddtichy type smell and a kind of spicy sandalwood smell."

"Sandalwood? What's so special about sandalwood?" asked Colin, confused. Amy just giggled.

"Anything you feel you should be telling me Gin? New boyfriend maybe?"

"What? No, why?" asked Ginny, perplexed.

"Well… I'd say sandalwood features in a lot of colognes, sure there's no one you fancy right now?" Amy giggled again as Ginny blushed slightly, both her and Colin finally understanding what Amy was getting at.

"No Amy, there is no one like that. And even if I wanted there to be, do you really think I could get a boyfriend anywhere near to me while I'm chained to a ferret?"

"Fair point." Amy conceded thoughtfully, though for some reason not looking entirely convinced. "Well, if you figure out why, make sure I'm the first to know. You'd be amazed how many people discover their own secret crush from smelling amourtentia you know!" Ginny blushed a little deeper as Amy winked at her. Before either of them could make further comment, it seemed Malfoy had become bored as Ginny fell off her chair and was aware of a slight dragging feeling. Apparently it was very _definitely_ time to go back to Slytherin tower now as he rarely did that, only when he wanted to go _now this instant_ did he knock her off her chair like that. Bidding a hasty goodbye to her friends Ginny got up and found the source of the magical dragging, accompanying him back to the common room (_his_ common room, merlin, was she forgetting she was Gryffindor?).

"Eurrgh! I hate Potions!" Ginny threw her bag to the floor angrily and then threw herself onto her bed. In her defence, she had just spent three hours doing her Potions essay.

"Errm, Weasley, should I be alarmed by that?" asked Draco, looking slightly warily at a small crystal bottle that had just rolled out of her very much discarded school bag. Ginny laughed loudly but this only made him more worried.

"Relax Malfoy, I'm not going to slip love potion into your food. I've only got that cause the sixth years made it in Potions and we didn't think it particularly wise to let Amy keep it. Draco cast his mind back, trying to think which girl was Amy. He shuddered slightly as he remembered, no that girl was definitely not one to be left to her own devices with a bottle of love potion.

"Right." He said, "So if you're not planning on slipping it to anyone, what are you going to do with it?"

"Good question. I'm afraid I have no idea." She picked it up and removed the stopper, watching the heavily scented steam rise in its "characteristic spirals". Draco backed away from the steam, not wanting to catch its scent.

"What's wrong Malfoy? Not want to get a whiff of your three secret attractions?" she teased.

"Get in the bathroom Weasley, unless of course you want Nott to come in here and ogle you?" Quick as a flash, Ginny was in the bathroom with the door shut and locked, not that she really thought Malfoy would try and open it. Draco sat on his bed, removing his shirt, he really was quite tired. He eyed the amourtentia cautiously, Weasley had been right; he did not want to know what he would smell. Attraction is weakness and, "You are a Malfoy, you must have no weakness!" His father's constant refrain, _you must have no weakness_. The truth was, he was a little scared of that bottle, not of what attracted him, but that that bottle knew his three greatest weaknesses. He did not want to know what they were. Ah well,_ what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger_.

As Malfoy pulled the covers over himself when he got into bed, Ginny was sure she caught a whiff of sandalwood. She sat up and turned, searching for the source of the smell. She almost laughed when she realised where it was coming from. Amy must be crap at making amourtentia, there was no way she fancied Malfoy.

"Malfoy?"

"Hmm?" he murmured.

"I can't sleep. Play chess?" he nodded and got up from his bed, preparing the chess board.

"So we'll miss the first nightmare tonight?" he grinned at her. As usual, Malfoy won their game of chess. She was getting better though, he couldn't do it so quickly as he could previously now, but she didn't get long to practice, he always made sure he was back in bed in time to fall asleep and have his nightmare, he always insisted on it.

"Zabini? Why does Malfoy always have his nightmare?" she asked across the room when Malfoy was in the bathroom, "I mean, there are like a million things he could do to stop it, but he insists on it. He even insists that it be the same time, why the hell does he do that?" Zabini sat up and considered her for a moment.

"It's the same time because he's just a bit obsessive like that, even his subconscience makes sure he has the same dream at the same time every night."

"But he doesn't have to, why does he-?"

"I think, he makes sure he has that nightmare every night so that he can make sure it is still his nightmare." Draco had taken less time in the bathroom than they had expected and he walked in now. He nodded to Zabini and got into bed.

"Weasley," he whispered so his friend couldn't hear him, "As a general rule, don't tell a Slytherin anything you wouldn't mind the whole school knowing. But don't tell Blaise anything you wouldn't mind being blackmailed with."

"What did you mean about Zabini last night?" Ginny asked Draco at breakfast the next morning.

"I thought it was pretty self-explanatory, don't trust Slytherins and Blaise is a blackmailer." He said, or rather drawled, to Ginny's irritation he still spoke with a drawl most of the time.

"Zabini, a blackmailer? You're joking right?" she laughed a little, Zabini had always seemed quite nice in a weird way, for a Slytherin.

"_Oh_ yeah. Come on Weasley, think about it; Blaise has got nearly as much of a Bad Boy image as me," he laughed a little but they both knew it was true, "How did he get it? He's family's not well connected, he's far too pretty to get into fights, how else do you get that respect in Slytherin? In Gryffindor he could've been brave and heroic and shit but that doesn't work here. Blaise took the easy way up. I've got to say, it's more dangerous than my way but it is more fun." He smirked.

"And what was your way Malfoy?" asked Ginny, sure she knew the answer already but she wanted to hear it from him.

"I don't take crap. You mess with me you pay for it, either I will jinx you or I will make someone whose already ugly beat you into a bloody pile of shit."

"Oh." This was not the answer she was expecting, she thought it would just be his family being rich Deatheaters.

"Not what you thought I'd say huh Weasel?" Ginny resented the Weasel part but nodded anyway, she wouldn't get anywhere by bringing that up. "I admit, it did start off with my family, but I really don't like crap and I'm good at manipulation. Even better when I've got a friend like Blaise." He smirked again, this one a little more like a smile though.

"What, so people just trust Blaise? After all this time, people still trust him, even though they're Slytherins too and know the rules?" Ginny was surprised by this, surely since most Slytherins were sneaky bastards they wouldn't confide in anyone, least of all a known blackmailer.

"No, most people don't, though I've got to say he can be very persuasive, always the sympathetic one who'll listen when you're upset. Not that many people let it show, but he's good at spotting it then. No, Blaise knows because he listens, looks, always on the job. Wouldn't be surprised if he actually has a little notebook to write down all the day's conversations just to make sure he's got everything. Be careful Weasley, no one with half a brain is as they seem." Ginny pondered this for a moment.

"So if Zabini is a blackmailer and you can't tell him anything, how come you do?" she asked, she desperately wanted to catch him out on one of his own Slytherin rules.

"Just because he's a blackmailer, it doesn't mean he's the only one." He said simply, in a tone that explicitly told her that there was nothing else he would tell her.

Ginny would never admit it, but Malfoy scared her slightly sometimes. The way with just a look, just a raised eyebrow or tone of voice he could command total obedience and convey so many things by saying or doing virtually nothing. By playing the innocent idiot from Gryffindor (something Malfoy had suggested so that she could make at least a small amount of her own way in not getting killed or something) she had managed to find out quite a bit about Malfoy.

The story about how he became the Prince of Slytherin for example. She was told that there always had to be a Slytherin Prince, the one who would have the most power, could dictate an awful lot of the lives of his fellow housemates, who got the biggest group of cronies and best seats, specifically the one by the fire in the common room. Not only was this the seat closest to the fire, it was the biggest and most comfortable chair in the whole common room and the only one which, by means of many conveniently placed mirrors, could see every dark corner of the shadowy room. No one in that room could ever be secret from the Prince. On his very first day in Slytherin Malfoy had walked up to the fifth year sat in that chair and raised an eyebrow. Just raised an eyebrow, and like that the old Slytherin Prince who had been four years older than him had just got up and Draco was the new Prince.

Yes, some things she heard about him scared her a little and reinforced her brother's and therefore her belief that Malfoy was just some arrogant, spoiled, horrible bastard with far too much money, but other things intrigued her, she even (dare she say it) liked some things about him. She was surprised how little violence he had ever used, even when someone had accidentally sat in his throne. He had just raised his eyebrow and left it at that. He was surprisingly considerate about some things; he even stopped his friends from teasing her sometimes.

Annoyingly often, Ginny found herself revaluating her opinions of Draco. She had spent six years thinking, no, _knowing_ that Draco Malfoy was a world class prick who was going to follow in his twisted, murdering father's footsteps and become a Deatheater. Now, she didn't know. He seemed to love contradicting people. She didn't like Pansy, didn't just buy his grades, didn't spend his time lording it over the Slytherins, and she wasn't even entirely sure he wanted to be a Deatheater.

After Harry, Ron and Hermione had left for their "mission" or whatever it was they were doing, Ginny had taken on Hermione's subscription of the daily prophet. She rarely read it at breakfast, Malfoy didn't like to stay there too long (Pansy was there) so she would read it quickly on the way back to the dorms to get their bags.

"Oh god. Malfoy, have you any idea how many people got killed last night?" Ginny asked him in a horrified voice, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"No." Came his blunt response. "And I don't want to either."  
>Instantly Ginny's temper flared.<p>

"Of course, you don't want to hear about all the horrible thing's Voldemort's done do you, you…"A flicker of something passed across Malfoy's face when she said the name. "What is it _Malfoy_? Scared to hear his name? Surely you of all people should be okay with it."

"Just because I grew up with a family that supports him, it doesn't mean we are any less afraid than anyone else." He said quietly in a voice that told her to say no more. Ginny ignored this and gave a small snort of derision and he turned on her like a whip, "You think your lot are scared of him? The worst he can do is kill you, bam, you're dead, gone, nothing else. Or unless you believe in which case you go to heaven because you're good. With us, that's the best he can do, just kill us and get it over with, either oblivion or hell cause we're bad people. The worst he can do to us is servitude. A lifetime of servitude, make us spend the rest of our lives: yes master. Arm burns, come to heel, yes master, burn, yes master, burn, yes master, yes master, no thoughts, hopes, dreams, wishes, just yes master, yes master, YES MASTER!" a pause while he breathed, "And then we go to hell. If you believe in that."

"So you don't believe in God then Malfoy?" he gave her a small, sad smile.

"Trust me Weasley, it's just easier not to. If I did then I'd have some serious anger issues."

"Even more serious than now you mean?" she laughed,

"Much." He told her, completely serious. "You see, with no god, my life sucks and that's the end. With a god, I'm being punished. Someone is deliberately torturing me and I don't know why." He got progressively angrier, his voice getting louder and louder with every sentence, "Did I do something wrong? If so, what, will I ever find out what I did? How do I even know I did something wrong? How do I know that god didn't just get bored, how do I know that he didn't just line everyone up one day and play ip dip do to find out who'd get a crap life? Why did they choose me? Why are some people's lives so fucking perfect while mine's so fucking shit? WHY DID THEY FUCK-?" he stopped for a moment and took a deep, calming breath, removing the emotion from his voice and face. "And that's why I don't believe." He walked off quickly, leaving Ginny staring after him.

Until she began to be dragged after him.

Ginny's thoughts were in a minor turmoil all the way back to the dormitories. As stupid and pathetic as it sounded, the Malfoys being evil had made up quite a large part of the foundations of Ginny's mind. To Ginny there had never been a time when the Malfoy's hadn't been bad, dark wizards. That was one of the earliest things she had known. The revelation that this may not be so didn't _upset_ her exactly but she was feeling a little shaken.

The impact on her opinion of Malfoy was fairly massive. So did this mean he wasn't evil, wasn't a Deatheater, wasn't going to follow in his father's footsteps? Damn this was a change.

Things were starting to look rather worrying for Draco and Ginny as Christmas loomed ever nearer. Ginny knew there was no way her parents would allow her to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas so she'd have to go, and so would Malfoy.

Draco was not too happy with this idea. But as the bond showed no sign of breaking anytime soon; or just anytime in general, there was the genuine possibility that Draco Malfoy was going to have to spend the holidays with his Least Favourite Family in the World. Neither Draco nor the youngest representative of his Least Favourite Family in the World was looking forward to this prospect.

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly!" Sang Ginny cheerily as they made their way to Transifguration, "Fa la la la la, la la la…"

"Shut it." Said Draco angrily, he hated all this Christmas crap.

"Oh but Malfoy!" Cried Ginny as she skipped alongside him, "You've got to get into the Christmas Spirit!"

"Yeah Weasley, I know. And I think I'm doing it rather well in the style of London in 1834" He told her.

"What are you on about?"  
>He sighed theatrically, as though exasperated by her ignorance,<p>

"Never read a Christmas Carol Weasley?"  
>Of course, just like Draco Malfoy to pick up Scrooge's style of Christmas spirit. Ginny sighed but didn't give in.<p>

"Yeah, but then at the end…"

"Fine then Weasley, at the very end of the Christmas holidays, I will put a piece of holly in my room in celebration. Happy?" Ginny sighed again, knowing full well that this was the furthest she was ever going to get.

"Fine Malfoy, fine. Just so long as it's there and I see actual evidence of its existence I rest my case for this year."

In Transfiguration, McGonagall picked up the Christmas Spirit almost as well as Malfoy, announcing that as far as their NEWTs were concerned, there was no such thing as a holiday and as such there would be no slacking off work,

"Although if you want, you can try to transfigure your owls into festive looking opera glasses." No one wanted to though, as this required adding quite a lot more long words and hand gestures to the end of an already difficult spell. Even Hermione would've blanched when she saw exactly how complex adding a Christmassy feel to an object made spell work.

Another nightmare. Another fucking nightmare, just as bad as all the others. This one worse actually. Draco was sure that on the other side of the door, Blaise and Weasley were probably having a conversation, probably about him, probably Weasley asking Blaise what he dreamed about. Draco thanked whatever god that might be out there that he didn't believe in that the only person who could tell her that was not going to. He trusted Blaise, and he trusted blackmail. Even without it though, he doubted whether his friend would've told her. You could trust Blaise, sometimes. Circumstance depending. No, you could. You knew that if he had dirt on you there would be a price for that, and once it was paid it stayed paid, Blaise was honest. If you could trust a blackmailer then Blaise was very much trustworthy, he never lied about what he was going to do with your information.

Draco took a deep breath and looked out of the artificial window, showing an accurate representation of what the lake looked like from that spot many metres above. He took a step towards it, if he couldn't quite reach the window then the bond was still on, then the world was real and that was just a dream. He took another step. Then another. It wasn't a large bathroom, one more step and he would be at the window. Why couldn't he feel the tug of the bond? At the risk of pulling Weasley out of bed then having to face a fuming Weasel after returning to the dorm, he took another step. And then began to panic.

"Weasley get up!" He hissed at her in an agitated whisper.

"What? Why?"

"Just do it!" Grumpily, Ginny pulled the covers off herself and got out of her lovely warm bed.

"You happy now? What do you want?"

He ignored her. "Go over there, go on." Ginny gave him a look that suggested he was utterly insane and walked in the direction of his pointing finger.  
>"What now?" She asked wearily, shivering slightly from the temperature contrast and looking around furtively to check that none of the hangings were open so that she couldn't be seen. "What? Malfoy what the fuck?" Draco had just sat down on his bed and put his head in his hands. "Seriously Malfoy, what the fuck are you doing?"<p>

"Either this is very good, or very bad." He said quietly, his voice muffled slightly through his hands.

"What?"

He looked up at her. "Care to measure the distance between us?" Ginny's tired brain quickly(ish) worked over that statement, wondering what he was on about. A few seconds frantic thought brought Ginny to the answer, but more confusion.

"Malfoy, why are you upset about this?"

"Because the world may or may not be real and there is the possibility that I am trapped in and endless nightmare." Came Draco's dull response. Ginny was unsure of whether or not she ought to laugh, but a glance at his face told her that would be unwise.

"Errm, why?" She asked cautiously.

"Because that bond was one of the only aspects of my existence that my father doesn't know about. If he has chosen to do something horrible to me, trapping me in my own nightmare for example, then that would be the one detail he would've missed out. So either the bond has broken of its own accord and this is a cause for great celebration, or the Dark Lord has trapped he in a nightmare within my own head."

"Huh. Any way of working out which one?"

"Get Blaise."

"Alright… Oi Zabini." Ginny raised her voice to her normal volume, not bothering to do anything else, she was sure he was awake and listening intently anyway.

"Yeah?" Ginny was correct.

"Go talk to Malfoy."

He didn't bother to ask why, he had, as all of them knew, been listening in on every word. "What?" He asked in a whisper.

"What's the worst piece of dirt I have on you?"


	5. Chapter 5

Just so you know,_ this is Ginny,_ this is Blaise and** this is Draco**

* * *

><p>That question guaranteed that everything was alright. There was no way Lucius could know about that. No way anyone else could know about that. So no one else would.<p>

* * *

><p>It was a Saturday the next morning and Ginny celebrated the weekend and the end of their bond by getting up very early and moving out. This was fine by Draco and Blaise, though Nott looked a little disappointed. It was fine, everyone knew Nott was a perve. Draco was also pleased that she had taken her Christmas decorations with her, she had managed to fix some holly and some tinsel to the wall above her bed and he had not been able to remove it.<p>

"So, how are you feeling?" asked Blaise in a teasing voice that Draco decided to ignore.

"Relieved actually. This makes Christmas a hell of a lot easier. I was really dreading the possibility of going to see her family."

Blaise laughed, "You could always come to mine. She won't be there; She's in Italy with Number Eleven." By 'She' Blaise meant his mother who had never really given a shit, Number Eleven was the number of husbands She had had so far, Number Ten had recently died and She had just found his replacement.

"You sure She won't notice?" Draco asked his friend, who gave out a loud, harsh laugh.

"Yeah, I'm fairly sure. Merlin, She notices fuck all. When Number Eight decided he wanted to "get to know me"; he noticed my little secret before She even had a clue. Fortunately that ended the getting to know me and he didn't mention it to Her." Draco smiled,

"Which place you going to this year?" Blaise had almost as many houses as Draco's family did, with every one of his mother's marriages he picked up a few more.

"The big place up in the Lakes, think that's my favourite at the moment. Bloody massive that place, you coming?"

"Yeah think I will thanks, can't exactly go to my place can I?" he gave a decent imitation of a smile and Blaise shot him a sympathetic look.

"Better at mine in pain than at yours at the moment I reckon, thank god most of Her's are muggles, don't think I could cope with what your family do. No offence Draco." He added quickly, Draco just smiled,

"If I'd have taken offence from that, I'd still be living at home."

Ginny woke up, sweating and panting, completely tangled up in her duvet which had not helped to cushion her when she hit the floor. It was much less pleasant now to wake up in her own home. At school Malfoy had always woken her up before she could do any damage to either herself or the room, now the only way she would wake up would be by falling off her bed or hitting her head really hard on the aptly named headboard.

"Oh crap." She whispered to herself. Had she really just thought that she missed something about Malfoy? Oh crap, now she was in trouble. She checked her watch which informed her that it was a quarter to one in the morning. Screw it, Zabini would just have to cope. Why Zabini? He was possibly the only one who would not check her instantly into St Mungo's. Perhaps tomorrow, but not straight away.

_Zabini,  
>I need help. I can just hear your sneering little voice telling me that you know I need help but the person to ask would be a qualified head healer. Unfortunately this time I agree with you. I miss Malfoy. Kill me now.<br>Weasel_

Desperately hoping he would take her seriously, she sent her letter and just had to wait for his reply.

Despite the fact that the Zabini house in the Lake District was massive, it was a small castle actually, both Draco and Blaise were in the same room. Even though it was now one a.m. they were both very much awake, though Blaise knew his friend would be retiring soon, he still refused to miss his nightmares. Blaise looked out of the window at the complete black, just how he liked it. Suddenly it was not completely black anymore as there was something rather large and grey in the way of the window. He opened it and allowed the owl in. He removed the letter from its leg and it sat there, staring expectantly at him. Great, a letter that wanted a reply. He hated that obligation, he was fine with replying but couldn't stand it when people didn't let him have the option of ignoring them. With a sigh he opened the letter that was definitely addressed to him and read it. He could hardly help himself from laughing, dear god; the Weasel had fallen for the Ferret. If she wasn't expecting him to deal with it, it would've been hilarious.

_Weasel,  
>You are officially screwed. Want me to tell him?<em>

_Zabini,  
>ARE YOU MENTAL? Don't you dare tell him! What the bloody hell am I meant to do now? Seriously, not saying I'm "in love" with him or anything like that, but this is kind of scaring me. Why do I miss ANYTHING about him?<br>Weasel_

_Weasel,  
>I don't personally think you are in much of a position to call anyone mental right now. How am I meant to know why? Surely that is the one thing you should know for yourself? As for what you're meant to do, you have two options, tell him, 2. You don't. Simple.<br>Zabini_

_NO ZABINI! NOT BLOODY "SIMPLE"! IN NO WAY IS ANY PART OF THIS FUCKING __**SIMPLE **__IF IT WAS I SURE AS HELL WOULDN'T BE COMING TO YOU!_

_Weasel,  
>I am insulted by that last statement. If you want my help, which you obviously do, be nicer. You might also want to tell me why you miss him?<br>Zabini_

_Zabini,  
>I woke up from my nightmare from falling on the floor and I missed the fact that he didn't wake me up. See, nicer, now help! (please)<br>Weasel_

_Weasel,  
>Fine, I'll help you, but only until you find yourself a trained head healer. Your situation is impossible, if that's what you miss then forget it. The only way to get that back now your bond is broken is (you might want to read this bit with your eyes closed) to sleep with Draco. Have fun.<br>Zabini_

_Holy crap, hold on while I kill myself._

_Weasel,  
>You didn't read with your eyes shut did you? Anyway, I'm not joking. If you want him to be there to wake you up, then he has to be there when you go to sleep, therefore, you must sleep with him.<br>Zabini_

_We're sorry, the person you just owled is now dead, please try again later_

_Fine then Weasel, alternative solution: get yourself bonded again._

_Is that a better idea or a worse one?_

_I would ask Draco but it's half one now._

_Don't you dare ask him you bastard! You mean while we've been owling, he's been awake? Was he in the same room? Please tell me what his nightmare is, I really want to know why he keeps making sure he has it!_

_Weasel,  
>Yes he has been awake and in the room, but he's now gone off to have the nightmare I will not reveal. I don't know yours, he hasn't told me. He's protected yours so just leave his alone for a bit. Since he's gone that only leaves you left to decide, would you rather miss him and spend your only time together insulting each other again, or be stuck with him 247? Your choice.  
>Zabini<em>

_Damn you Zabini. I haven't got a clue. The insults did kind of suck though._

_Weasel,  
>As much as I'm loving the abuse from you in every letter I'm afraid I would like to get back to my normal person sleep, you know, the kind without freakish nightmares. Try not to miss him again tonight. Oh what the hell.<br>Zabini_

Damn, the bastard was right. Now she knew she missed that about him, it was kind of hard not to pick up on other things. Her Potions help for instance.

"Blimey Gin, you look awful!" George informed her as she came down to breakfast.

"Why thank you for noticing. Fred, if you have a comment, please get it done with now." Her brother smiled and chose to nick her bacon instead. "Oi! Come back here you-! Oh never mind." She said as both twins fled the kitchen."

"Morning Ginny! You don't look well!" exclaimed her mother.

"Thanks mum, you are now the third person to notice that." She said, sitting down at the kitchen table dejectedly.

"Did you sleep at all last night Ginny? You look a real mess." That was probably more due to the fact that she couldn't use magic now than any change to the amount of sleep she got, she reminded herself to thank Malfoy for giving her the rejuvenating spells, she didn't know what she'd do without them. Well actually she did, she'd look a mess and drink even more coffee.

"I'm fine mum." She yawned reassuringly, reaching out for her coffee, "I just had a bad dream is all."

"Hmm…"

After many mugs of coffee and breakfast (minus most of her bacon, _somehow_ that kept disappearing) Ginny was ordered upstairs to get dressed because Bill and Fleur would be there soon. Although Ginny no longer _hated_ Fleur, she did not want to be quite so thoroughly outdone by her as she would be if the gorgeous part vela turned up when Ginny was still in her old pyjamas. Damn it, where was an obsessive neat freak when you needed one? She'd only been back one night and already her room was so messy she couldn't find her clothes.

The obsessive neat freak Ginny needed was in fact still asleep. After his nightmare the previous night he had bitten the bullet and downed a much needed sleeping potion to catch up on the many, many hours he had missed at school. The husband the Zabinis had gotten this house from was a muggle so Blaise was watching a muggle TV show, a really stupid one where fat people with ridiculous problems were mocked by the presenter.

"My boyfriend tattooed a skull across his face and he's cheating on me" read the bottom of the screen. It was pure crap and Blaise knew it, but it was at least temporarily amusing and it wasn't a shitty Christmas Special. Both Blaise and Draco hated them as neither was particularly bothered about Christmas. Blaise's mother didn't care about him but wanted to show whichever husband she was on that she was a caring person who loved the son who she never saw so she sent him a load of expensive presents he didn't really care about and did nothing else and Draco's father didn't want a spoiled child so Christmas was even less for him. It was just a time of year when it got cold and sometimes there would be snow. Snow they liked, even Lucius Malfoy hadn't been able to repress his son's love of snow even if he could stop him from playing with it most of the time.

A tapping noise on the window interrupted the presenter telling the idiot with the skull tattooed on his face that he would give his children nightmares and Blaise looked around to see the owl Ginny had sent last night, now looking absolutely exhausted and carrying a letter for him,

_Zabini,  
>I have never been more bored without Percy being here. Half of my brothers have come around for Christmas along with Bill's wife Fleur who I don't necessarily hate anymore but I still can't stand the bitch! Unfortunately Fred and George can't either so they're being even louder and more annoying than usual and mum keeps crying randomly because one of my brothers hates us and the other is with his friends who are kind of unofficial Wealeys anyway and they're all trying to kill themselves (which mum's never been happy about). What are you doing? I'll bet your holiday is better than mine. I've got to go, Fleur's complaining about the music and again and mum's <em>still_ crying.  
>Weasel<em>

Blaise read the letter with a smile, yes his holiday was doing much better. He turned off the TV and went upstairs with the owl on his arm, there was no point replying until it was conscious again. As he passed the window he noticed that it was snowing. He smiled and wondered whether there would be enough snow for a snowball fight later.

"Morning Blaise." Called Draco from his room as he passed. Blaise stuck his head in,

"Draco, you do know it's nearly one in the afternoon?"

"Oh. Well then hey." Blaise laughed at his friend's response, he was so much more cheerful with no one else around.

"Hey to you too Draco." He walked on again to his room where he put the owl, which was still out cold, into a cage wrote his response, waiting for it to come round.

_Weasel,  
>You are correct, my holiday is immensely better than that. You asked what I'm doing, it's snowing here now, think I'll go have a snowball fight in a minute, in the meantime I think I'll watch TV. Jealous much Weasel?<br>Zabini_

When Blaise received her reply he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

_Fuck you Zabini. _

"What is it Blaise?" asked Draco, coming in from the other room. Blaise held out the note,

"From Weasley." He explained, Draco's face split into a grin,

"Merlin Blaise, what did you say to her?" he chortled

"Well she said her holiday was crap, I told her how great mine's going. I think it irritated her." Draco smiled and shook his head then went off to get more toast while Blaise wrote his response.

_You wish Weasel._

_Just no Zabini. Just no.  
>Gotta say though; wish I could have a snowball fight, one that didn't kill me I mean. You do not want to join in Fred and George's snowball fights.<em>

_I'd invite you to join in ours only we're in the Lake District. You can come if you want _

_Frankly I'm actually inclined to take up that offer. My aunt Muriel just got here. The twins don't like her. I'm going to die. _

_Merlin Weasel, I was joking! Still, I guess so long as your family don't try and accuse us of kidnapping you can come if you want. Sounds like they might not notice your absence just now. By the way, it's fucking freezing up here, you might want to bring many, many layers. _

_Seriously Zabini? I was joking too, but I'm not saying no to a way out of here. Be over in about half an hour? Where do you live?_

"Err Blaise, who have you just invited over?" asked Draco, reading over his shoulder. Hmm, this could be interesting.

"Weasley." Fortunately Draco just raised his eyebrows.

"If I didn't know much better I'd be saying you have a crush on her Blaise. Fortunately for you I do know better but even so. I'm starting to worry if my blackmail's actually worth anything." They both knew it was just a joke, but there was a serious note to it. Blaise raised an eyebrow,

"I'd say I'd prove it to you but…" Blaise smirked at Draco who laughed.

"I'll have the house elves get stuff ready."

_Sounds good Weasel, floo yourself to the study of Lakeside Castle, the Lake District (I swear the name was more original before mother renamed it)_

He sent his reply off and relaxed back into the large leather sofa and pointed his wand at the TV.

Half an hour later at the Burrow and the situation was even worse than when she had first written to Zabini. Fred and George had come in from their snowball fight and were busy persuading Muriel to leave, in other words they were destroying the house. Fleur didn't like Celestina Warbeck so she bitched about that and imitated it for a while until that really pissed off Mrs Weasley, then Bill had a go at his wife for pissing off his mother and suddenly the war against Voldemort paled in comparison to the fight that they were having.

Ginny's mum was a complete mess because, as expected, Harry, Ron and Hermione hadn't been able to get in contact and Percy hadn't wanted to and Charlie was still in Romania and Fleur, even though she was screaming at Bill, was still managing to get in some digs at Celestina. Her dad was busy trying to comfort her mum and Muriel was having a go at the twins to both parents. Really, Ginny wasn't needed, she thought as she stepped into her fireplace.

"Lakeside Castle!" Cried Ginny, then shutting her eyes quickly, she always got sick easily and did not want to step out into Zabini's _castle_ and throw up on the floor. Coughing slightly from the soot Ginny straightened up and stepped out of the fire into a large, very grand looking study. It had a full length picture window which opened out onto a large expanse of ankle deep snow. She looked around the room, Zabini definitely wasn't in there.

"Hello?" she called, opening the study door and stepping out into a long hallway furnished with mahogany.

"Weasel!" called a voice from behind her; she spun around to see Zabini standing outside the picture window which was also a door, covered in snow.

"Hey Zabini! Long time, no see!" she smiled,

"Yeah, all of two days. Just can't keep away can you?" before she could respond indignantly he continued, "Come on then, just one rule, no snow in the house or the elves will, well, not have our heads since they're elves, but dinner will definitely suffer. Come on!" She beamed, thrilled at the prospect of so much snow. When she stepped outside she discovered that the snow was more than the ankle deep as had thought it was. She didn't have any time to do much more thinking as a large snowball hit her squarely on the back of the head. She raised her own fistful of snow but before she could release it Zabini smiled and waved his finger,

"No snow inside the house!" he told her, still standing in front of the open study door. He couldn't gloat for long as a snowball whizzed through the air and hit the side of his head.

"Ah shit!" Zabini wiped snow from his eyes and Ginny laughed loudly. She heard someone else laughing from the direction the snowball had come from. She turned to find the source, and saw something that surprised her,

"Malfoy? What are you doing here?" He just smirked, "No my dear Weasel, what are you doing here? I'm staying for Christmas; you it seems have just come to chuck snow around." Ginny recovered from her surprise when Zabini threw a snowball at her chest. She turned round and saw that Zabini had now shut the study door. She grinned as a large heap of snow made its way directly towards his face.

About hour or so into their three way snowball fight they were interrupted by a small red light zooming from the house towards them, beeping loudly. It stopped and hung in the air in front of Blaise who dropped the snowballs he'd been holding and swore loudly.

"Shit. Seems this one's a family man." He reached forward and took the red light from the air then raised his hand to his face. "Hi mum!" he said with feigned enthusiasm as he began heading back to the house. Catching Ginny's look of confusion Draco explained.

"His mum's got a new husband; it seems he thinks family's important so she has to talk to Blaise for him to make it look like they're a _lovely happy family_." He smiled humourlessly. "We'd better wait for him, he probably won't be too long, not if either of them can help it." Ginny paused for a moment, trying to get her head around a family like Zabini's seemed to be. A mother who didn't care and a child who hated their parent, how did that even work? After a minute she couldn't grasp the concept however and she gave up.

"What are you doing here Malfoy?" he raised an eyebrow and she quickly amended, "I mean, why are you staying at Zabini's? I'd have thought you'd stay with your family." He laughed, hard and cold, completely devoid of humour and a little creepy.

"Oh no Weasley, all that ended over the summer. It didn't really exist before then but it's over now." Another idea Ginny couldn't get, how a family could just _end_, just like that over one summer. Surely that didn't work?

"It does work Weasley." He said, almost as though he could see her thoughts, "It does work and will continue to work for the rest of my dear father's life. Not that that's looking to be much longer." He turned around, looking further out onto the grounds. Ginny was completely shocked at how coldly and simply Malfoy was able to talk about the death of his own father. She'd always thought that Malfoy and his father had been close, that Draco was a mini Lucius even. Apparently she'd been wrong.

"What happened Malfoy?" she asked tentatively, aware that she was getting very near the line and not wanting to ruin both his and Zabini's Christmas by having Malfoy as a brick wall.

"I am not my father." He said through gritted teeth, still not facing her.

"Oh." She was curious but did not enquire further. "I'm sorry Malfoy." He turned to face her, smirking. It was not his usual smirk, it looked, somehow, more dangerous than that.

"Weasley, I am _not_ my father. What would you call my father if you were talking to him?" Trying not to say that she wouldn't be talking to him, Ginny thought.

"Malfoy I guess." She shrugged. He smiled, still in the same odd, slightly threatening way as his smirk.

"Exactly Weasley, I am not my father." Ginny understood. "Oh, sorry. Draco." His name felt alien on her tongue, she had never called him Draco before and somehow understood the significance of it. Only people who recognised him as different from his father gave him that different name. He smiled properly at her now, glad that she could see the difference.

"Hey." Called Zabini wearily as he made his way back towards them. He looked pissed off and exhausted and sounded it too. "Sorry I took so long but I assure you I didn't mean to." He stopped in front of them, "God I hope She gets rid of Number Eleven soon, he's even worse than Number Eight!" he moaned, "Says he wants a "family gathering", wants to meet me soon so we can be "one proper family". Eurrgh I hate this twat!" Draco smiled sympathetically and clapped his friend on the shoulder.

"Hard luck mate, that does sound worse than Eight, it's okay, I'm sure he won't stick for long. He doesn't sound like one She'd like to keep around for longer than necessary."

"Yeah I guess," replied Blaise, still not looking particularly encouraged, "But have you noticed, She's slowing down again, She was with number ten for nearly a year! I reckon She's running out of methods!" (Zabini's mother was famous for having had many different husbands, all of whom died mysteriously leaving her very rich. It was well known but impossible to prove that Mrs Zabini herself was responsible.)

"Just so long as She hasn't run out yet you're fine. If She has, well, there's only one more year you have to do this." Blaise snorted,

"Easy for you to say. I'd rather do what you've done." Said Blaise frustratedly.

"What, get completely disinherited? Trust me mate, you're better off sticking around for another year." Assured Draco with a smile. Ginny stood there in a mixture of shock and a little horror. Surely Draco Malfoy had not been completely disinherited.

"You all right Weasley?" asked Blaise, noticing her expression.

"What? Oh, yeah I'm fine Zabini." She said quickly snapping out of her train of thought. "Want to start the snowball fight again?" The two boys looked at each other.

"No not really." Said Blaise, gesturing back toward the house, "She's gone and exhausted me now. And plus I'm freezing my balls off out here, it's fucking freezing!"

Back at the house the house elves took their wet outer clothes to be dried and they sat in front of the fire in a drawing room with mugs of hot chocolate. "Not really necessary of course," explained Blaise, "But it's kind of traditional, you know."

"Feeling better now Zabini?" asked Ginny. "Both balls still attached, neither has completely frozen off yet I taken it?" she giggled, Draco and Zabini joined her, though Zabini considerably less enthusiastically than his friend.

"Question, Weasley," said Zabini once Draco's laughter had died down, "Why is he Draco while I'm still Zabini? Does he get a special status or something?" he pouted in an excellent though accidental impersonation of Pansy, one which Draco did not fail to point out.

"Fine then Zabini, you can be Blaise if you want." Smiled Ginny,

"Thank you Weasel." He said graciously,

"Hang on, this is a bit one sided! How come you two are Draco and Blaise now but I'm still Weasel or Weasley?" she demanded in mock anger. They smirked at her,

"Well Weasel," explained Draco, his usual drawl gone now he was away from school, "Everyone calls us by our surnames and you by your first, so to be different you call us by our first names and we call you by your surname."

"Can't you just call me Ginny? Please?" Draco wrinkled his nose,

"What's it short for?" Ginny rolled her eyes,

"Technically it's short for Ginevra but no one calls me-"

"Well then!" Announced Draco, sitting up from the sofa he was reclining on and clapping his hands together in delight, "We will call you _Ginevra._" Ginny looked disgusted,

"Hey! No one calls me Ginevra! I hate that name!" she protested, also sitting up,

"Ah but Ginevra darling, that's the whole point!" he told her gleefully, now reclining again, "it's a name that no one else calls you! Completely original, hey Blaise?" Blaise smirked and nodded. Ginny gave up, throwing herself down onto the sofa in mock despair she lay sprawled across it, very much in contrast to Draco lying elegantly across his.

"Holy crap!" she yelled, sitting up again quickly and checking her watch, she'd just looked out the window to find it was dark outside. "Shit, it's fucking dark already! I've been here for hours! Shit!" she jumped up and ran over to the fireplace grabbing a handful of floo powder from the pot on the mantelpiece. Just as she disappeared into the winding network of fireplaces she heard Draco's voice,

"We'll see you later Ginevra."

Fortunately everything had been too much hell for anyone to work out when Ginny had gone up to her room so they just thought it was an hour or so and she'd managed to convince them she'd just been tired and had a nap. After everyone's comments about her appearance at breakfast this was not hard to believe. It was only when Ginny was getting ready for bed at the end of the evening that she remembered her outdoor clothes; she'd left them all at Blaise's for the house elves to dry! Damn it, she'd have to go back. Knowing those two they wouldn't make it easy for her. Ah well.

Ginny was in the middle of her nightmare, she was in the Chamber and Tom was talking to her, when there was a loud tapping noise which quickly progressed to banging. At first she'd just incorporated it into her dream but it finally got so loud it woke her up. The banging didn't stop when she was awake, looking around for the source of it Ginny saw that outside the window was a very large owl, throwing itself against the glass. She opened the window quickly and the bird flew in with a letter around its leg. It was a gorgeous owl, a huge eagle owl which looked oddly very slightly familiar, like she'd seen it somewhere before. She removed the letter and ripped it open.

_Sweet nightmares Ginevra_

So that was where she'd recognised the owl from, it was Draco's. Had Blaise told him about the letters she had sent last night? If he had it wouldn't be the cold removing his balls.

_To you too Draco_

If Blaise had told him… She had to find out.

_Blaise you prick. If you told Draco about my letter last night, I swear I'm going to kill you._

_Ginevra  
>I assure you I didn't tell anyone<br>Blaise_

_Blaise,  
>Unless you rephrase that letter without calling me Ginevra I'm going to come round to your castle tomorrow and rip off your balls.<br>Ginny_

_Ginny,  
>I honestly told no one. Why would I? I'm a blackmailer, remember?<br>Blaise_

_Blaise,  
>Your balls are temporarily safe, but if you didn't tell him then why did he write to me tonight to wake me up?<br>Ginny_

_If I knew that love I'd be a millionaire. Draco only knows why he does half the crap he does and he sure as hell won't tell anyone. If you're that bothered then ask him yourself._

For some reason, Ginny didn't really want to do that, but as Blaise didn't know and she now really wanted to know she decided she would ask anyway. Draco's response soared through the window and perched on her headboard so she could remove the letter.

**_Thank you Ginevra, but if you've noticed I've still got a few hours left until mine and I can wake myself up. I figured you could probably do with some help before you try and strangle yourself or attack any poor sod that comes near you_**

_Actually what I'm more likely to do is roll off my bed and hit the floor with a loud thud. That's how I woke up last night. I don't suppose we can play chess via owl can we? I really feel like playing_

**_Ouch, I think my methods of waking you up are better. No unfortunately we can't play chess via owl, all the pieces would slide around on the board and then you might declare yourself the winner because all of my pieces have fallen out into a lake or something. If you came over again tomorrow we could but you probably shouldn't sneak over to play with two Slytherin boys two days in a row. Not very Gryffindorish behaviour. _**

_I think I'm going to have to go back tomorrow anyway, I've left all my outdoor clothes there! Any chance I can get them back without having to go over?_

**_Blaise says no. Very definitely no, if you want them back you'll have to come and get them. He also says we should all at least maintain the pretence of normality and go to bed now, rather than me waiting until the time when I have to go and have my nightmare. Blaise says he will call you Ginevra if you reply as my owl can be rather loud when tapping on windows. See you tomorrow Ginevra._**

She could just see the bastard smirking as he wrote that last sentence, loving how much she hated the name. And he knew she would have to come tomorrow or there would be some awkward questions about where all her clothes had gone. Damn that bastard. Blaise was right though, he had an annoying habit of doing that. She should go to bed. She lay down and shut her eyes and tried to get to sleep.

"Holy crap." She whispered, jerking upright. She had _not _just missed the Slytherin dorms. Here there was no noise at night, even the ghoul went to sleep, in her Gryffindor dorm her hangings were soundproofed so it was just as silent. In Slytherin she had had no hangings to soundproof, though Zabini and Malfoy had soundproofed Crabbe and Goyle's after one night of particularly loud snoring when no one could sleep at all. She had had to listen to Nott's light snores, Blaise's heavy breathing and Draco's silence. She missed the sounds of people sleeping, she missed trying to work out whether or not Draco and Blaise were actually asleep. She missed playing chess at one in the morning and being woken up by someone who knew her nightmare. Shit. So not good.

Unfortunately there was no getting round this problem and Ginny thought Blaise would probably die from laughing if she told him all this so she just tried to ignore it.


	6. Chapter 6

"Good morning Ginevra." Said Draco as Ginny stepped out of the fire into the drawing room at Lakeside Castle

"Eurrgh." Came Ginny's reply as she threw herself down onto the sofa opposite the fire. She took up the whole sofa; despite the fact that Draco was sat in the middle of it. She just put her legs over his lap and lay back against the armrest. She did this often now; the Burrow was just too stressed out at the moment as they had now heard that their family probably wasn't safe there anymore.

This meant that everything was even more stressed so, Fred and George were louder, Bill and Fleur fought more, Mrs Weasley cried more, Auntie Muriel got more annoyed and Mr Weasley just got stressed. He didn't yell or anything but it was just stressful to be around him. Ginny had to get out of there and where better to go than this large, quiet, relaxed castle. Draco sighed as Ginny sprawled across him but didn't say anything. It was odd how he and Ginny, quintessential opposites, could be completely relaxed together. Hell, it was just odd, a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, a Weasley and a Malfoy, it was just wrong. But as Draco said, none of them were their fathers so who gave a shit?

Blaise walked in and chuckled, "So Ginny," after numerous threats from Ginny to rip his balls off, he no longer called her Ginevra, "What happened this time? Another dung bomb from your brothers? Another nuclear war from your brother and his wife?" he asked, amused as ever at the Weasley family antics.

"No, Muriel just told mum that Fred and George would die young and everyone took offence." Draco joined in with Blaise's laughter, even Ginny had to laugh at this. It had to be the worst Christmas the Burrow had ever seen, even worse than the one where Fred and George had been disinherited by Muriel.

Suddenly the beeping red light cam whizzing up to Blaise and he swore before taking it out of the air.

"Hi mum!" he left the room, feigning happiness he really wasn't feeling anymore. Draco and Ginny relaxed into the extremely comfortable sofa and Draco stared into the fire. His musings were interrupted by a fluent stream of heavy swearing. Ginny felt like covering her ears it was that bad, and she grew up with quidditch practice in the early hours of the morning and with six brothers.

"Holy mother of fucking SHIT!" finished Blaise, knocking over a lamp. Even Draco, who had seen his friend in pretty much every mood imaginable over the past seventeen years, was a little troubled at this outburst. Blaise threw himself face down onto a sofa, still mouthing swearwords.

"Err, Blaise mate? You alright?" Blaise propped himself up onto an elbow and looked at Draco.

"Fuck Number Eleven! He's a fucking bastard and I hate his fucking balls!" raged Blaise, dropping his elbow and hiding his face in the sofa again. Ginny looked at Draco, silently asking if he had any idea what was going on.

"I think him Number Eleven wants a family gathering." whispered Draco, not quite quietly enough to escape Blaise's sensitive ears.

"Fucking right he does!" said Blaise still fuming, sitting up. "New Year's Eve, he's coming over and we're having a fucking party! Here! With all his stupid fucking muggle friends!" Draco made a sympathetic face and would've gone to pat him on the back if Ginny hadn't been lying resolutely across his legs.

"Bad luck mate. Err, am I allowed to stay?" he asked, suddenly a little nervous.

"Yeah sure mate, you can stay. She says I'm allowed, "'One or two little friends, but not too many, _darling_.' Bitch." Draco decided that the only thing to do would be change the subject, but Blaise would only let it change slightly, his friend could be as stubborn as him on things like this.

"So who else you going to invite?" he asked, a little more cheerily than usual.

"Just you. Not like there are actually any decent people at school are there?" he asked. He had a point.

"Well I don't think mine will be much better." Said Ginny resignedly, "We're all moving to Muriel's on New Year's Day for "security reasons", it's going to be hell the night before. I'll probably just go to bed straight after dinner." Blaise just looked at her, extremely sceptical that anyone could even compare their time to the one he was going to have with his mother.

"You could always make her suffer with us." Joked Draco, trying to cheer his friend up, "Ginevra, you wouldn't mind meeting Mrs Zabini would you?" he chuckled. Blaise looked up, an evil grin spread across his face,

"Actually Weasley, I reckon you should come. I think you'd really enjoy meeting my mother!"

"Are you joking Blaise?"  
>Blaise shook his head, he was perfectly serious.<p>

"Come on Ginevra _darling_! We're both stuck with her, why shouldn't you be too?" asked Draco who was having to work very hard to keep from laughing.

"Come on Gin!" smiled Blaise, "You've got to come!" Ginny showed him a face which plainly asked exactly why she had to come. "If you don't I'll call you Ginevra and I won't let you escape here anymore!" Ginny's face darkened as he said "Ginevra". Damn, he'd won even before he threatened to stop her coming.

"Okay, okay, I'll come!" she said quickly, "But I warn you, I have no nice clothes, and looking around this _castle_, it's a fucking _castle_! I'd say I'll need a dress."

"It's only a small castle," defended Blaise, cheering up almost instantly now he knew that both of his friends would have to share his misery with him. "And as for the dress, I'm sure we'll get hold of one somehow. Here, come with me, we can have a look in mother's wardrobe room, I'm sure she'll have one here." Hiding her amazement that Blaise's mother had a wardrobe _room_, she followed him upstairs.

"Why have you come with us Draco?" she asked as they reached the top of the stairs and she realised that he had followed her.

"Are you joking? Why on earth would I miss watching you try on lots of sparkly dresses Weasel? And yes they are all sparkly; I've been to more than one of her parties." Ginny groaned, she really wasn't keen on the idea of wearing a sparkly dress.

They reached the wardrobe room which was on the seventh and top floor (five storeys shorter than Draco's house) and Ginny found herself being lead over to one section which nearly blinded her, it was that sparkly.

"Before we start, I am not wearing anything that will blind me when I look in the mirror. Extreme sparkles are not my thing. Deal?" reluctantly the two boys agreed and the set to the dresses to find some one's that would look nice on Ginny. There were dozens of the bloody things, it took them ages to go through them. When they had finally looked at every single one, Draco and Blaise waited outside for Ginny to try them on. Fortunately Ginny and Mrs Zabini were of a similar size, unfortunately the disagreed on how much cleavage to show and how many sparkles made a dress obscene.

Draco and Blaise seemed to be really enjoying themselves, watching her try on dress after dress that showed varying amounts of skin. She refused to show them the slaggiest ones; it was bad enough that Blaise had to see his mother in them she thought. "Ooh, nice" laughed Draco, "Love the salmon pink glitter!" she gave him the finger and walked back into the wardrobe room. She had tried on what felt like hundreds and there were only a few left now, she hoped one would look okay on.

"Whoa." Draco stared at her as she stepped out of the room. She couldn't be sure whether or not he was joking. This dress was a dark emerald green and made of silk. It was quite tight and gathered just under her bust where a thick strip of diamonds circled her, probably real since the Zabini's were rolling in it. It was strapless with a slightly heart shaped bodice. The silk fell straight down to just below her ankles with a slit up to her thigh on one side. The expensive material was soft and smooth and shone in the light; the diamonds sparkled when she moved. Both boys were staring at her and she was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable.

"Do you like it?" she asked concerned.

"Wear that." Said Blaise simply, snapping both of them out of their reveries.

"Yes, that." Said Draco. "Don't bother trying on any more, you're wearing that. Now get the hell out of it or we'll be accused of kidnapping you, it's nearly one now and no doubt your family will be having lunch."

"Speaking of which," said Blaise, turning around as he smelled what was probably his lunch being made in the kitchens.

"I'll see you whenever I can guys, it's nearly Christmas and you can bet your arse I'll have to help mum cook." Said Ginny miserably, turning back into the wardrobe room.

"Bet this arse?" said Draco, an eyebrow raised, "You must be mad Ginevra, no one would ever risk losing this!" she laughed as she removed the beautiful dress then handed it to the house elf who came in to take it from her.

"Thanks, I'll be needing this for New Year's."

"Yes Miss, right away Miss!" squeaked the house elf as it bowed its way out. When Ginny left the room she found Draco and Blaise had already gone, probably to lunch knowing them. She found the nearest fireplace and called out,

"Bye guys! See you round!" before stepping into the emerald flames and whirling away into her bedroom.

"Ginny! Come down now!" called her mother from downstairs. Time for her lunch now.

Ginny was right, at Lakeside the two boys were indeed eating. Blaise had cheered up immensely with the promise of his two friends basking in misery with him and was now, if not looking forward to the party, not entirely dreading it. Draco's mood had improved after spending an hour mocking Ginny's various dresses and then seeing her looking absolutely gorgeous in the last one.

"So Draco, do you miss being bonded to her?" asked Blaise, a little malice in his eye.

"Now I know that's what she can look like yeah, I sure as hell do!" Blaise laughed, but that hadn't been entirely what he meant. "Yeah okay, that aside." Draco considered this for a moment,

"I don't know, I was really getting used to it and as long as she stayed out of my head it was okay having her there." Blaise didn't push the matter. His friend might be more open and happier here but you can't undo a lifetime of emotional suppression in a week. From Draco that was pretty damn near an "I love you."

Ginny had been right, she had found it increasingly difficult to escape for even a few minutes, let alone long enough to floo over to her friends. Her mother started baking for Christmas several days in advance and being the only girl who knew how to cook she was forced to help her mother bake endless batches of mince pies and jam tarts (which for some reason were a Christmas tradition with the Weasleys). She recited her tales of woe to Draco whenever she had free time, it was just impossible to relax with all the noise going on in the Burrow.

Draco wasn't used to being able to go to sleep at midnight, usually that was the time he had to wake up Ginny. After hearing multiple stories about the various and painful ways she had been woken up from her nightmares he decided to send her his owl every night to wake her up at the right time. His owl Caesar flew in through the open window and he got up to stroke him absentmindedly.

He hoped the bird had reached her before she fell off her bed or hit her head against the wall, or worse. She had a rather unpleasant habit of getting rather violent in her nightmares. Suddenly there was a flash of green from behind him and his dying fire grew tall. He turned around quickly, his wand in his hand and pointing at the fireplace before he had even thought about it. But it was not some Deatheater or his father trying to force the mark back onto him; instead a small figure stood there in her too small pyjamas with tear stained eyes and dishevelled hair.

"Ginny?" he lowered his wand slightly but did not put it down, his father had taught him better than that.

"Can we play chess?" she asked in a small but determined voice, one that told him that he was not by any account to say a word about why she was here or her appearance.

"Sure." He smiled and waved his wand bringing the chess set to them. "Bloody hell you must be freezing!" he said as he noticed exactly how much too small her night clothes were. "Here, put this on." He said, chucking her a large hoodie. She put it on gratefully. "White moves first, off you go." He told her, relaxing into his chair with a smirk.

"You wait Draco, one of these nights I will beat you!" she threatened, moving her first pawn forwards.

An hour later and Draco declared checkmate.

"You're doing a lot better though." He told a disgruntled Ginny encouragingly, for him anyway. "It took me a whole hour to beat you. By the way," he checked his watch and looked up at her. It was now half past one.

"Oh come on Draco, you are not going to make me leave!" she pouted. He gave her a wry smile.

"You could stay here if you wanted but I'm going to sleep." He told her, getting into bed. She cast him an evil grin.

"You know Draco, I think I may just take you up on that." She got into bed next to him, pretending to be oblivious to his disbelieving glance and shake of his head. Fortunately it was a very large bed and, determined to stay on schedule, Draco was soon asleep.

Not for long though, half an hour later and he was awake again, panting and covered in cold sweat. He stumbled into his en suite bathroom and turned on the shower, ice cold as usual. Ginny woke up too and nearly hit herself for thinking that she almost missed this. Draco got back into bed, his usually perfect hair now tousled and damp. He hadn't bothered to put his hoodie back on and Ginny didn't even bother trying to stop herself from admiring his chest.

There was no use denying that he was utterly gorgeous. As much as the Gryffindors hated him even they couldn't dispute that Draco Malfoy was possibly the sexiest guy in the school. Years of quidditch training, courtesy of the professional quidditch coach Lucius had hired his son to ensure he was the best player in the school, had paid off and there was not an inch of him without muscle. Ginny put her arm around him as he pulled the covers back over himself, she couldn't help it, he was actually beautiful (not a word Ginny often used for guys, but in Malfoy's case it was true) and he just looked so depressed, she wanted to comfort him.

Draco woke up the next morning with his arms around Ginny, and hers around him. He guessed this was not a situation she would've chosen to find herself in so he quickly disentangled himself, not that he didn't like it but he figured she'd probably be enormously embarrassed and turn bright red if she found herself like that. He got out of bed and took another shower, sorting out his hair this time, then sat in an armchair by the fire with a book.

Ginny woke up with a yawn then stretched luxuriously. That was the best sleep she'd had in a while. Her nostrils were filled with an attractive smell which, once she was a little more awake, she identified as sandalwood. A second later and she was a little more awake. Awake enough to panic slightly. Her eyes snapped back open and she sat bolt upright, looking around.

"Holy shit!" she jumped out of bed and started freaking out. Draco was torn between amusement and concern, if she kept on like this she would probably have some kind of mental breakdown, she was talking very fast in a high pitched and increasingly desperate voice and pacing very quickly up and down his room with her hands in her hair looking rather like she was trying to pull it out. When she actually did start pulling some out Draco got up and stood right in front of her putting his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look up at him.

"Breathe." He ordered, she sucked in a lung full of air, "Breathe in, breathe out, in, out, in, out. Better?" she nodded gratefully, still concentrating on breathing. "Good." He let go of her shoulders and sat back down, still watching her. Any minute now… Yep, she had snapped again,

"What the fuck am I going to do now? I just spent the night at Zabini's house in your bed and,"

"Ginevra, if you do not shut up I am going to take the sleeve of my hoodie that you are wearing and shove it into your mouth. If you go back to your room now, no one will ever know you were even here." He told her calmly, "So get the hell into my fireplace and go home, understand?" she nodded mutely and stepped backwards into the flames.

Once she was gone Draco sat back on his bed and laughed. He just sat there laughing for a while, until Blaise opened the door and asked him what the fuck he was doing "and breakfast's ready". Draco would've dearly loved to tell his friend what had happened that night as Blaise was sure to find it hilarious, but he had promised Ginny that no one would ever know and he supposed Blaise would count as someone.

Luckily the Weasleys allowed Ginny a lie in that morning and her night with Draco (not that anything happened) was never noticed. However as soon as she got downstairs she was presented with mountains of work to do and all hope of returning to the castle that day were smashed to oblivion. She went to bed early, hoping for some time to relax. Yeah right, Bill and Fleur were having another war downstairs, there was no way she could relax here. Not since she was sixteen and unable to use magic to soundproof her room.

She stepped wearily into the fireplace and emerged in the drawing room at Blaise's, she figured this was probably safer than Draco's room.

"Hey Ginny." Said Blaise, barely even looking up from his book as she sat down, or rather sprawled across the sofa again. "Ginevra darling, do you mean to always choose the sofa I happen to be on?" asked Draco, amused but by now a little tired of it. No, Ginny didn't mean to choose his sofa, it just happened to be right opposite the fire. Ah well, she put some pillows by the armrest to make it a little more comfortable and Draco got used to having her legs across his lap.

"Good sleep last night Ginevra darling?" he asked innocently, a smirk spreading across his face. Ginny's face began to colour and she smiled, a little embarrassed, which made Draco laugh.

"Errm, I'm feeling like I'm missing something here." Said Blaise bemusedly. Draco turned to Ginny,

"Will you tell him darling?" Ginny sighed and turned to Blaise to explain the previous night. As Draco had predicted he found it very funny, especially as he was the only one privy to both of their minds. In his professional opinion they just needed to get it on.

Ginny stayed for an hour or two, growing sleepy in the warmth and light of the dying fire. Blaise and Draco had a quiet conversation around her until Blaise bade them both goodnight and left. Ginny stayed a while after that with Draco trapped under her until he decided that it would be unwise for her to fall asleep here twice. He shook her awake gently and helped her up, she was very nearly asleep. He promised to send and owl to wake her up from her nightmare but she shook her head.

"No, you come wake me up. I always end up crying if I wake up any other way." Reluctantly Draco agreed and sent her off home, not that there was a huge amount of point, she would be awake again in an hour or so.

At midnight Draco silently flooed himself to the Burrow and waited. He sat on the end of Ginny's bed, ready to wake her up when her nightmare started. At a quarter past she started to toss and turn and was muttering in a distressed way. When she started clawing at the air Draco cursed and sighed, pulling down his sleeves to protect his arms.

"Ow, shit!" he whispered angrily, she'd clawed his bloody face! He shook her harder, now feeling a little less sympathetic. When she woke up she sat up and buried her face into his chest. He sighed, he had thought the entire point of him coming was so that she _wouldn't_ wake up crying. Ah well. He put an arm around her and waited until her tears stopped.

"Chess?" he asked. She nodded and he picked her up out of bed, grabbing his hoodie as he left, flooing to his room. He sat her down on a chair and prepared the chess set, tossing her his hoodie to put on again. Even if you weren't in the dungeons castles get pretty damn cold.

"Draco, I don't want to go back to sleep." They were in the middle of a game and Ginny had just looked at a clock, any time now he would send her back home so that he could sleep badly and she would end up going to sleep again. Why couldn't he just this once not have it? It's not like it would kill him.

"You don't have to go to sleep Gin." He told her, but she wasn't having it,

"But you're going to send me home so that you can aren't you!" he nodded.

"You don't have to go to sleep at home Ginny." These were the only times he actually called her Ginny or Gin rather than Ginevra or Weasley.

"But I will! I will fall asleep again at home!" She was crying now, a tear rolled down her cheek. Damn, Draco hated tears.

"Fine, you can stay here. I'll go to sleep for half an hour then I'll keep you company, okay?" Ginny nodded while Draco smiled. Blaise was going to crack up when he told him that Ginny Weasley had spent two nights in a row in his room, in his bed. He got into his side of the bed while Ginny took the other side and fell asleep quickly.

After seeing Draco fall asleep Ginny was feeling a little tired. Time to wake herself up, Draco's way she decided. She went into his bathroom and took a cold shower, not ice cold like he did but cold for anyone normal's standards, she couldn't stand how cold Draco put it. After a while she felt awake enough to get out the shower, she picked up a snowy white towel and wrapped it around her freezing body.

It was at this moment that Draco came in, obviously having just woken up and desperate for a cold shower. He'd already taken off his hoodie when he noticed Ginny, standing there awkwardly wearing nothing but a towel, not entirely sure of what she should do. She didn't need a mind connection to know that his was still a little elsewhere and he would have no idea what to do right now. She took action, picking up her pile of clothes and slipping past him into the bedroom. After a moment of standing there Draco got into the shower, knowing that Blaise would probably have to go St Mungo's with a set of broken ribs if Draco told him about this, he'd crack up laughing, and that he should really think of something other than how good Ginny looked wearing nothing but that towel.

In the bedroom Ginny got changed quickly and sat in front of the fire. Draco knocked on the door, checking to see if he could come in.

"It's fine Draco, you can come in." he sat down in the chair opposite her, she loved it when his hair looked all messy like that.

"Chess?" he asked. She smiled gratefully and they started another game. Ginny was really very tired by then, her eyelids began to feel heavy and her chess playing was awful. Draco beat her in the shortest time yet.

"You ready to go to sleep yet?" he asked, magicking the chess board away. She nodded sleepily and he helped her up.

"I'm not going home." She said as he steered her towards the fire. "The dreams know where to find me at home." She smiled, knowing that it made no sense but that she wanted to stay. He shook his head, a little disbelieving still. They both got into separate sides of the bed then Draco turned to her and grinned.

"At least we can tell people we started off this way." He said, rolling over. She would've protested but then she noticed,

"Bastard can't be asleep already! Draco!" she shook him lightly, he couldn't be asleep that quickly! "Hey Draco! Malfoy! Ferret face!" Ginny watched his face carefully, not a flicker passed over it. That settled it, there was no way he'd be able to hear her call him ferret face and not respond. Bastard.

This time it was Ginny who woke first. She felt warm and well rested and inexplicably very happy, but she did not want to open her eyes. She buried her head into her pillow, only to discover it did not feel much like a pillow. Cautiously she opened her eyes, then snapped then shut again quickly. Maybe her happiness was not so inexplicable. Steeling herself, she opened her eyes again.

Well, there were worse sights to wake up to, it turned out that her 'pillow' was in fact Draco's chest. She shook her head, no way was this real; she had now slept with Draco Malfoy two nights in a row and had just woken up on top of his bare chest. Merlin's beard, underwear and anything else it was possible to swear by, if anyone in her dorm knew she'd be branded as slag for life, and pressed for details by everyone who fancied him.

Damn near everyone in other words. Draco woke up slowly; Ginny's hair had tickled him when she shook her head. He sat up a bit and looked down, then lay back again.

"Why is it that I am always waking up in the most incriminating ways lately?" he chuckled.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Ginny, more than a little worried, but Draco just laughed,

"Ginevra darling, you don't even want to know how I woke up yesterday." Ginny blushed slightly, which just made him laugh more. "Instead of just lying there and blushing, it might help you to get off me. I know I'm gorgeous and everything but…" he only broke off when she wacked him in the face with a pillow. "Oi!" he yelled, but before he could do anything she had got up out of bed and was stepping towards the fire.

"Bye Draco!"

"Goodbye Ginevra, oh and happy Christmas!" he called as she vanished into the flames.

"Were you talking to yourself Draco?" asked Blaise who had been passing. Draco sat up and leaned back against his pillows. "No."

"I'd swear I heard you talking." Said Blaise confusedly.

"You did."

"Oh, happy Christmas."

"To you to Blaise!" Blaise left, shutting the door behind him before he began to laugh. Seriously, when would those two just get together? Or even realise that they should?

"Oh shit!" yelled Blaise as an owl deposited a large envelope full of money onto his lap. Not a normal reaction that that happening but to Blaise it wasn't just a load of money, it was his mother telling him to go Christmas shopping. Fortunately, being men, it was somewhat traditional that they hadn't bought anyone anything so they decided that they may as well both go shopping. Fortunately many shops in Diagon Alley stayed open on Christmas day so with a loud crack they apparated there. Draco thanked whatever god might be out there that he had the key to his own Greengotts vault so he still had plenty of money, enough to live on comfortably for quite a while. He withdrew some before hitting the shops. Draco had only three presents to buy and as did Blaise, but Blaise had a much more specific agenda. The owl that had arrived that morning with the envelope of money had also delivered a small list from Mrs Zabini. Blaise's new father ("don't you dare call him that you bastard!") wanted something expensive and shiny while his mother had given him specific instructions on the exact new dress she wanted him to buy for her so it would look like he had chosen it for her.

After buying a book of hexes -that _promised _to be _perfectly_ legal- for Blaise, Draco crossed the road to a very expensive jewellery shop where he purchased his remaining two gifts including a small silver locket for his mother. He and Blaise then returned to Lakeside to open each other's newly bought presents.

At around half past eleven at night Ginny stumbled out of the fireplace and fell into Draco's lap.

"Hey Ginny." Said Blaise, not looking up from the section in his new book enigmatically marked "For Enemies". "Hello Ginevra. Any particular reason you're lying on me again or is it just getting to be a habit?" Ginny giggled at him,

"That and you're just so damn sexy!" she joked, then yawned widely. "Fuck I'm tired. This is the first five minutes I've had on my own all day." Fortunately, today all of her relatives had been quite well behaved. Her dad had calmed down, Fred and George weren't being so, Fred-and-George-ish, Bill and Fleur stopped arguing and Auntie Muriel had fallen asleep. The only bad news was that this was the Christmas with the most Weasleys absent in memory and her mum kept on crying at random intervals. Overall it had been quite a good day, just completely draining. "Shit, I could go to sleep right now." She muttered sleepily.

"I think you should probably go home now then Ginny." Said Blaise, smiling in an almost big brotherish way at the little Weasel.

"Not really much point though, it less than half an hour I'm going to have to come over there anyway then you'll start crying and I'll have to bring you back." Said Draco. Ginny nodded, yawning again.

"Fair point. I'll just go get in my pjs." She got up and tripped back into the fire.

"Unless I just send an owl tonight?" Draco asked hopefully. Ginny gave him the finger and stepped into the fireplace.

"What are you laughing at Blaise?" asked Draco, turning to his friend who was laughing his head off.

"You two!" choked Blaise through his laughter, "You crack me up!" he continued to cackle all the way up the many numerous stairs. Draco shook his head. Utterly insane.

When he reached his room Ginny was already in bed waiting for him.

"Please don't tell your brothers about this." He laughed, removing his shirt.

"Why?" giggled Ginny, covering her eyes as he stripped off, "Because you're scared they'll come round and deck you?" Draco just shook his head and got in next to her.

"I would make sure we're on opposite sides again, but after the last two nights I don't think there's all that much point, do you?" Ginny shook her head and smiled as he put his arm around her. She nuzzled into his side and fell asleep. Before she knew it he was shaking her gently awake from her nightmare, which didn't seem nearly so bad as it had been before. She didn't feel like playing chess much and it was almost half one anyway so they just went back to sleep until Draco woke up later.

Ginny woke up before Draco, wrapped up in his arms. It was strange how this was no longer strange, it almost made her laugh. Just four months ago they had been mortal enemies, and now look at them. Ah well. Draco looked so peaceful when he slept, she did not want to wake him. She kissed his cheek then returned to the Burrow, where hell lay in wait.

_Blaise and Draco,  
>Not going to be able to come for a while. You know I said Fred and George were being good yesterday? Well they've made up for it, they've filled Muriel's room with garrotting gas so she can't sleep there anymore! You know what happens then? She moves into Percy's room where Fleur was staying so now Fleur has to stay in my room! How shit is that! So now she'll notice whether or not I'm there at night and in the day! Blaise, I may not be able to come to your party as I will probably have killed myself by then.<br>Ginny_

The days until New Year's dragged by in a flurry of angry French from Ginny's new dorm mate with a horrible smell from Fred and George's dung bombs. But, eventually, the day came. Ginny had had a lousy night's sleep, she hadn't been able to sleep until one in the morning then at quarter past she'd smacked her head on the wall then rolled away off the bed hitting the floor painfully and bringing down a lamp as she did, which shattered sending a shard into her forehead which had bled profusely for a while. Strangely, after that she couldn't get back to sleep. At half past five she'd stomped downstairs to get her first mug of coffee. She was on her eighth when her mother came down a few hours later. Every single member of her family had come downstairs and remarked on how awful she looked. This combined with her lack of sleep put her in a very bad mood for the rest of the morning, even Fleur allowed her to be on her own in her room. This Ginny was very glad of as it meant she received Draco's letter in peace.

**_Ginevra,  
>Happy new year's eve. Come over at seven, technically the party starts at nine but I think it would be better for Blaise if you got here before his mother. Sweet nightmares?<br>Draco_**

_No Draco, awful nightmares. Almost no sleep and painful waking, was much better on Boxing Day (Boxing Night technically but ah well). I'll be over at seven, I've told mum I'm going to Amy's party instead. It will probably take me until ten to get ready, I had no sleep last night and I look and feel like shit. See you at seven._

**_Sounds like nothing a rejuvenating spell won't fix! You'll be fine, just don't stop smiling, Blaise will need it from someone. Floo into my room, it's easier._**

Ginny felt desperately sorry for Blaise, she couldn't begin to imagine having a family like his. Even if hers did piss her off endlessly. "MUM! DAD! I'm going out at seven!" She hollered out of her door.

At seven o'clock Ginny stepped out of the fireplace in Draco's room, a little apprehensive as to why he wanted her in here rather than downstairs. She looked around nervously. If that bastard wasn't there…

"You thought I wasn't going to be here didn't you." Ginny jumped backwards in shock,

"Holy mother of fuck Draco! You scared the shit out of me! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Draco just smiled.

"Here's your dress. I thought you might want to put it on in here on your own. Oh and Blaise says you can keep it." He told her. She stared at the dress, it was utterly gorgeous and judging by those diamonds it was fucking expensive, probably the most expensive thing she had ever been anywhere near.

"You're shitting me?" she asked, still unable to look away from it. Draco shook his head and smiled,

"He says happy Christmas." Ginny was finally able to tear her eyes away from the dress and she pouted at Draco, "So I get a present from Blaise but not you?" he chuckled,

"Put that on and I'll give you yours." He left the room leaving her to change and waited outside.

"Okay you can come in now!" she called. When he came back in he was holding a small black box. She raised her eyebrows at him but he just smirked at her.

"Shut your eyes."

"What?" he rolled his eyes at her,

"Just shut your eyes Ginny." Slightly suspicious she obeyed. She heard the snap of the box opening then felt Draco's hand moving the hair away from her neck. She felt something cold slipping around her throat and Draco's warm fingers across the back of her neck. "There." Ginny opened her eyes and Draco steered her in front of the mirror.

The necklace was simple, but elegant and excruciatingly expensive. The links of the chain were large and shone a bright silver white, but it was the pendant hanging from it that caught Ginny's eye. The jewel itself was a simple, but masterful cut, shining and refracting the light at all angles with its beautiful shade of bright, pale green, the edge encrusted with tiny diamonds.

It matched her dress perfectly and she loved it. She just stared at her reflexion, amazed by the beauty of her new outfit, a smile crept slowly across her lips, lighting up her face. Draco stood beside her with an arm around her waist, smiling at her smile. After Ginny had looked her fill she turned to Draco and threw her arms around him. He hadn't been expecting it and wasn't entirely sure what to do. After a moment she pulled away and kissed him quickly on the lips. "Thank you Draco." She whispered. He smiled at her for a moment, her arms were still around his neck and she was beaming at him looking absolutely stunning. "Ah Ginevra darling, you're not done yet! The house elves are very keen to do hair and makeup with you. Frankly if I were you I would very much accept, Mrs Zabini is never one for dressing down." She let go of his neck and thanked him again before opening the door and allowing a waiting house elf to lead her away.

* * *

><p>Here's roughly what the necklace looks like if you're interested-<p>

.com/Web_GB/en/1128046/product/Hyacinth_Pastel_?CatalogCategoryName=0108)


	7. Chapter 7

Draco sighed and left also, walking the opposite way down the corridor towards Blaise's room. Blaise looked a little short of miserable. "Come on mate, it's not that bad!" comforted Draco. Blaise looked up at him, "Easy for you to say." Draco laughed,  
>"Yeah, cause my family's just that much better, the Deatheater father who is always disappointed and who tortures me when I disappoint him. Much better mate." Even in this mood Blaise was able to see Draco's point and smiled apologetically at him. "Don't worry, I know what you mean. At least Ginny's here this time, might distract her a bit." Blaise stared blankly at him,<br>"How does Ginny make any difference whatsoever?" Draco smirked at him.  
>"Blaise, you've invited two people to this party, one of them is your best friend, the other is a girl. It will look like she's your girlfriend." Blaise snorted with laughter, knowing for a fact that Ginny would not be too pleased with this. "Maybe it'll look like that to anyone doesn't know me and who's not been here over the holiday." He laughed. Honestly, his girlfriend?<br>"What do you mean by that? I get the first bit but?" It was Malfoy's turn to stare blankly.  
>"I mean, you've only been sleeping with her for god's sake!" cackled Blaise. To his amusement Draco turned a little pink. "Oh come off it, you know it's not been like that!" scoffed Draco to Blaise's continued cackling. "Oh and don't say that in front of her. She does the best bat-bogey hex in Britain." The beeping red light zoomed towards Blaise, stood stationary for a moment then vanished. Blaise groaned and fell back onto his bed. "Shit. She's here."<p>

Blaise and Draco went down to the entrance hall to meet Mrs Zabini to find Ginny being dragged there by an elf while she was hopping on one foot, desperately trying to put a diamanté shoe onto the other. Once they reached the bottom of the stairs the elf helped her put the shoe on before scurrying away. "You ready Ginny?" asked Draco from the other side of Blaise. She nodded though for some reason she felt a little nervous. "Darlings!" the front doors burst open to reveal a tall, skinny and very pretty woman who instantly wrapped herself around Blaise. Once she had moved aside Draco and Ginny could see an average man. If there really was a Joe Bloggs, this was him. He looked completely average in every way, average height, average brown hair, average brown eyes, just average. Except for the fact that he was loaded. Mrs Zabini withdrew from her son leaving a scarlet lipstick mark on his cheek. She looked a bit like a supermodel at first glance. She was tall and very skinny with dark skin, darker than Blaise's, and jet black hair, her lipstick was a very, very bright red and her eyelashes far too big to be real. Actually she was too old to be a model, in her early forties (though she tried her best to hide it). "Hey mum!" said Blaise in a feeble impersonation of cheerfulness. "How was Italy?"  
>"So darlings, I'd like to you to meet George!" She exclaimed, ignoring Blaise's last comment, "Georgie come here!" she snapped at the average man. "Georgie," her voice quickly regained its sugared tone, "this is Blaise and two of his little friends. I'm sure your little friends can cope on their own for a while, while we have some family time! Come on boys!" She grabbed both 'boys' and dragged them upstairs talking very loudly. Ginny was a little shell shocked, how the hell were she and Blaise related? "Come on Ginevra darling; let's go somewhere a bit more, undercover." He led her into a drawing room and shut the door then collapsed onto a sofa. "Exhausting just to be in her presence isn't it." Ginny could only nod and collapse on top of him. "Well, it may seem like she ignored us but you can bet she took in every detail." Ginny could only agree with him and was very glad she's let the house elf put on a full coat of eye shadow.<p>

After about an hour Blaise came down to find them. He looked dead, kind of like a zombie. He dropped onto the sofa between Draco and Ginny and fell onto Draco's shoulder. Ginny put her arm around him and he just sat like that for a while, ignoring their talk. There was a pause in their conversation in which Blaise managed to regain his voice. "You know what," he said, sounding slightly hoarse as though he hadn't spoken in weeks, "I'd really love it if this one fights back and kills her first." Draco looked at him, far from surprised. In fact, he was surprised it had taken his friend so long to voice this. "I think quite a few people do Blaise. Now come on, it's nine o'clock now, everyone will be here in an hour and Ginevra still hasn't had her rejuvenating spell." That last hour before the guests arrived seemed to slip by much faster than it should've done. Far too soon Blaise was called downstairs by a high pitched scream that was his mother telling him to come and greet the guests. There seemed to be bloody millions of them! Rich fat, short, old and balding men with a couple more completely average people who you could tell were rich because they all had fantastically young and beautiful wives wearing not particularly much. Mrs Zabini was wearing something electric green and covered in sequins which was really very short and showed a lot more than you necessarily wanted to see. Much, _much_ more than Blaise wanted to see, but he was used to it by now. Every single one of these boring people with high pitched wives had to be welcomed in by name as if they were your best friends and you had to make small talk with them for a while before greeting the next one. Finally the last two idiots came, one of them was ugly, old and fat and the other was his wife who looked about twelve and was wearing what appeared to be a small flamingo.

After greeting everyone Blaise was no longer needed, or rather, no longer wanted, so he was able to hide with his friends. "Kill me now. Please." Ginny smiled and put her arm around him,  
>"Don't worry Blaise, you'll be fine." He gave her an incredibly sceptical look,<br>"Oh yeah? And why's that?"  
>"Because we're here!" said Ginny simply, beaming at him with so much energy he felt like groaning again. "Now come dance." She received another sceptical look and sighed. "Fine then, Draco, you're dancing with me. Come on!" she grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the dance floor. Ginny had learned to dance when she was younger, at her insistence her mother had taken her to dance classes. She had not expected Draco to be better at dancing than her. "Where and why the hell did you learn to dance like this Draco?" she asked as he guided her gracefully across the floor. He smirked at her, "Really Ginevra, with my family, do you really think this is the first formal occasion I have ever had to attend? Please, my mother had me learn to dance almost before I could walk! Did you seriously expect my parents to have me embarrassing them by no knowing how to dance a simple waltz?"<br>"Yes," she acknowledged, "but you're not making it simple are-?" she never quite got to finish that sentence as Draco picked her up into a small lift. "No Ginevra, I'm not making it simple. Simple bores me, hell, this whole thing bores me but simple especially." Whenever they turned to see Blaise they found him either laughing softy or simply splitting his face in a smile that wasn't entirely good, something like a smirk only a bit more evil. He was enjoying watching them dance and hoped that maybe they would finally just get over themselves. Unfortunately for Blaise when the song finished they came back of the floor still as just friends.

"Okay, one minute to midnight darlings! No one is to be alone; I will make sure of it!" Mrs Zabini called over the music to the room in general. "Blaise, George wants you to go dance with his niece. Go on!" Blaise gave to two of them a wry smile before following his mother towards a girl who he was definitely not interested in and out of sight. "Thirty seconds!" Ginny and Draco danced together, laughing at nothing and everything, this was the happiest Ginny had ever seen Draco, possibly the happiest he had ever been. Then the music stopped and the countdown began, they stopped dancing, suddenly a little more sober with awareness of what the approaching midnight would mean. "Ten! Nine! Eight!" they stood in front of each other, staring apprehensively into the other's face. "Six! Five! Four!" Suddenly Ginny found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss Draco, she wanted to kiss him even, was sure she'd always wanted it, "Three! Two!" any second, "One! HAPPY NEW YEAR!" Ginny titled her head up towards Draco, expecting just a quick peck and then over, oh how wrong she was. Draco, it seemed, wanted this kiss as much as she did. She leaned towards him and her lips touched his. Just as she was starting to pull away his hands, which had been at his side, rose to her waist, gripping her, pulling her closer, then closer still, not that it was physically possible to be much closer to her. She wasted no time in responding, she put her arms around his neck and teasingly traced his jaw line with her finger. She pulled him even closer and his hands dropped, one curving around her back, and then a little lower. The other hand fell to her shoulder before moving to tangle in her hair, cupping the back of her head.

Ginny parted her lips under the insistent pressure of his mouth and his tongue swept in, seeking and exploring. Ginny returned the move, tasting the inside of his lips, running her tongue over his teeth, doing some exploring of her own. She loved the feeling; sure she had kissed other guys before but not one of them was anywhere near as good as this. Draco whole heartedly agreed, he had kissed over half of the girls in the school and nothing had ever felt as good as kissing Ginny. They were the last couple to break apart and they did so reluctantly, unable to break their minds at least away from the sensation of that kiss.

Blaise had followed his mother to the girl he was meant to kiss, done so briefly and left quickly. He hadn't needed to remind himself why kissing her felt so wrong. When he came to find his two friends he was delighted to see they had _finally_ gotten off, their pretending that it was just friendship had really been bugging him. He grabbed three glasses of champagne from a passing waiter and waited for his friends to separate. When they finally did Blaise came over to them, smirking hugely. "Champagne?" he offered innocently through barely supressed laughter. They both accepted immediately. Draco downed his almost in one and smiled, Blaise had never seen him this happy before, doubted ever had been this happy even. Ginny was trying to sip at hers but kept gulping it instead. After a while she gave up the pretence and downed the rest of it like Draco. Neither of them was really looking at anyone, including each other, and they looked a little awkward, but both pretty much radiated happiness.

The rest of the evening was pretty much a blur for Draco. Midnight had been the moment he realised that he wanted Ginny and being a Malfoy (even a disinherited one) he had to get what he wanted, even just for a second. What he had got was so much better than he had expected. She had responded to his kiss instantly, fully and enthusiastically and he was sure she had wanted it as much as him. When they had broken apart he felt a little like he might just fall over, she had completely messed with his senses. Fortunately Blaise soon came over and he regained control. He felt amazing, like he was on top of the world. He had beaten everyone and gotten himself the wrong girl, the girl he desperately wanted. "Come dance." She handed her empty glass to a passing waiter and allowed him to sweep her out onto the floor. He admitted he had shown off hugely but hey, who gave? He had just kissed the most gorgeous girl in the room, possibly in the world and she had completely kissed him back. He was almost sorry that the evening was over. Almost though, nothing was quite worth having to dance with Mrs Zabini again. She had had her eye on him all evening; it had not escaped her notice that he was by miles the sexiest guy in the room.

Ginny was staying the night to Draco and Blaise lead her upstairs to the wing they were staying on, it was the nicest one. "Right Ginny, you can stay here tonight." Said Blaise, opening to door to the room next to Draco's just down the hall from his own. "Sleep tight." He winked at Draco, fairly certain that neither would spend the whole night on their own. And he was right.

Ginny didn't even knock before walking into Draco's room and getting into bed next to him. Her eyes were red and her hair was a mess, he asked no questions, just put an arm around her and continued reading his book. She didn't mind that he was reading, he had his arm around her and they were lying next to each other, both wearing his hoodies. Ginny had really taken to the hoodie he had lent her before and decided that she didn't want to give it back. It still smelled of sandalwood, something she couldn't help but remember she was attracted to. "No chess tonight Ginny?" he asked her, finally putting down his book. She nuzzled her head into his should her shook her head which made him laugh. He loved that about her, she could make him laugh. But tonight, as relaxed as he usually felt around her, he was a little nervous. The kiss earlier, what had it meant to her? Instantly he clarified to himself that he wasn't "_in love"_ with her or anything, but that had been a fucking good kiss and it would be a great shame never to experience that amazing feeling again. However open he was able to be with Ginny, he doubted he would ever be able to confide everything in anyone so he said not a word of his thoughts, completely unaware that she shared them.

They lay there together; Ginny nestled into Draco with their arms around each other, for quite a while. Slowly the horrible but perfectly realistic concept presented itself to Ginny; the idea that he didn't give a shit. The idea that Draco didn't care about her, that she was just another one of his conquests, another girl who had succumbed to his charm and he had gotten his hands on simply for the pleasure of it like with all the other girls, just because he was bored. She hated this idea, really hated it suddenly. She hadn't cared a crap about Draco's many, many acquisitions (not girlfriends, he couldn't even name half of them) until an hour ago, now she still didn't really care, she just wanted to be his first proper girlfriend. Finally she could take it no longer. She looked up into his peaceful, happy face and asked him: "Draco, what the fuck?"

This, not surprisingly, shocked him a little. "What? What are you on about Ginny?"  
>"Earlier." He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach; she was going to ask why he had kissed her like that. "Why did you kiss me like that?" Ouch. He had seen it coming but it still hurt. Instantly he froze his features, not turning them into a mask, not yet, just not letting them change. "Excuse me?"<br>"You heard me." Said Ginny, hear fear causing her to sound harsher than she intended, "Why?" Draco's defence mechanisms were now jumping into place very quickly, but Ginny was too scared to notice his face turn blank. "Because I felt like it." He drawled; something he hadn't done since the beginning of the holiday. Ginny had heard enough and it was exactly what she had expected to hear, "Fine, I'll go then." She felt tears prick her eyes as she jumped out of bed and stomped toward the fire. As she turned her face towards it the light shone on her face, illuminating especially the tears now sliding down her face. Just as she stepped into the fire Draco grabbed her wrist. "Why are _you_ crying?" he had no idea why she was upset, she was the one who had just rejected him.  
>"Oh, I don't know, because I felt like it." She snapped at him, trying to tug herself free from his grip. Draco recognised his own words against him, "Why are you doing that? Why are <em>you<em> angry at _me_?" His voice rose with his temper, no longer under its usual control, "Hell, you're the one who just asked me why the fuck I kissed you, why are you the one getting annoyed?"  
>"What?" she snapped back, every bit as confused as he was. "You just told me that you kissed me because you felt like it!" she yelled at him, he refused to back down.<br>"And you just asked me why I even kissed you in the first place!" He yelled back, matching then beating her volume. "So why did you kiss me in the first place?" she screamed at him,  
>"Because I wanted to!" he yelled back, "Because I really fucking wanted to, wanted you!" Ginny froze. "Well why the fuck didn't you say so you twat!" she yelled back at him, now smiling slightly. "What?" Jesus Christ this was getting confusing! Did she want him to kiss her then or…?<br>"If that's why you kissed me then why didn't you just tell me you stupid twat?" she yelled, the smile now reached right across her face as she screamed it at him, much to his confusion. "Wait, what?" he asked, utterly perplexed. Ginny beamed at him, "I wanted to kiss you too, but I didn't know if you did, so I asked, why didn't you just tell me then?"  
>"Ginevra, I can't believe you just asked that." He said simply. "As happy as I may be here, I am emotionally fucked up for life. There is no way at any point in my life, past, present or future that I will be able to answer a question like that, especially if you phrase the question, "What the fuck"." Ginny blushed a little, she really hadn't meant to be that harsh, but she too had been worried what Draco's response would be. "So let me get this straight, you kissed me because you wanted to, wanted me and I kissed you back for the same reason. That about right?" Draco didn't answer, he just pulled her back toward him, all anger forgotten, laughing with relief, and kissed her. She wrapped an arm around his neck as his arms went to her back; she sat down next to him and pulled herself beneath the covers of the bed. Draco did not move up for her, just pulled her closer in. One hand went up to her hair again, he ran his fingers through it then pulled her head in, just a little closer to his, while his other hand went underneath her nightshirt, feeling the bare skin of her back. She was no less exploratory, her hand went straight to his perfect hair, teasing the jell apart and messing it all up, just as she liked it. Her other hand roamed his back before deciding that as lovely as his back was, she'd rather feel his front. Her hand went to his chest and slipped under shirt. She loved the feel of his abs, he was amazingly muscular and she loved every inch of it.<p>

Slowly their kisses became less passionate and they eventually broke apart. "Happy New Year Draco." She whispered into his ear as she fell asleep against his chest. He looked down at her tenderly, stroking her soft red hair. After a while he sighed and gently moved her away from him. He did not want to wake her up when he woke. After his dream he came back out of the bathroom, warmer than usual as he had used the hot tap for once in an attempt not to be utterly freezing and wake her. He may as well not have bothered as she was awake (just) and waiting for him. When he lay back down next to her she wrapped herself around him again and this time he did not push her away. He was going to miss this after the holidays.

_Ginevra,  
>It has been <em>far _too long. You have to find a way to come here before the end of term. You just have to. D._

_What do you think I'm trying to do? I've been trying to get away since I got back but no luck so far. Muriel likes to have everyone under her thumb and no one wants anyone else to be allowed to escape the hell while they're still trapped with her. I will find a way back though, how could I not when you ask so nicely? I bet you felt all wrong writing that; makes you seem far more vulnerable than you usually let yourself be xxx_

_Ginevra darling you are completely right, don't expect many more letters like that or I may have to kill myself. To hell with your aunt, tell your parents you have to go and see Amy or whatshisname, your boyfriend type bloke. Say something dreadful happened to them/ their family and you have to go. You damn well do have to go or I may just end up kidnapping you then there would be all the formalities of being sent to Azkaban and I really don't feel like seeing my father at the moment D. xx_

_Okay fine, I'll just lie through my teeth to my family _again _for you. Xxx  
>Oh and by the way, Colin is so not my boyfriend.<em>

_Damn right he's not._

Ginny laughed at Draco's response, unusually she found his possessiveness over her quite cute actually, with Michael it had just been annoying but somehow with Draco it made her feel special. Everything was just more special with Draco; any tiny thing brought you closer to him, but only if you recognised what it was and put it into the right place in the jigsaw puzzle that was Draco. She had a feeling it would be one of those puzzles with ten thousand pieces where every square looks identical and several crucial pieces have been lost so there is no way of ever completing it, but she was determined to try. Someone had to bother.

Draco too had found her response amusing, the way she had tried not to correct him about Colin but in the end she had had to put it in, just so that he was sure. Blaise didn't comment on his friend's occasional laughter, he had never known Draco to laugh so often. To be fair he too was laughing more than usual due to pure hysteria at his mother's departure. Every now and then he would just remember that she was gone for another year (hopefully) and he would just be so happy he would burst out laughing.

Unusually Draco was not looking forward to his return to school. True, they still had nearly another whole week left of the holiday but that really didn't seem a particularly long time to have a girlfriend. Not that he was exactly an expert on proper relationships, but still. He could see that Ginny thought herself an open person, the kind of person who everyone knew. He disagreed. Everyone knew his main mask, the one he wore so often even he began to know it better than his real self, and they thought it was reality. With Ginny, he thought there was more to her than she showed to even herself. She had just buried it for so long that she had forgotten its existence, the existence of a small but integral part of who she was. No one else had noticed its absence but he would find it.

Ginny hated her Aunt Muriel's house. It was huge, there were dozens of rooms, yet Ginny shared a room with her brother and his wife. That could hardly get more awkward at times. At other times it physically couldn't get more annoying as she and Fleur still disliked each other and Bill and Fleur still argued. A lot. Ginny couldn't take it anymore; she needed some privacy, even just for a few hours while she slept. She had put up with the first week of sharing a bedroom with her family but enough was enough. Ginny, being the only girl, had always had her own room, the one room in the house that had been hers; she would continue to have that thank you very much. After an awful lot of yelling and a full blown screaming match with Muriel, she managed to get her own room. It was tiny with the smallest fireplace ever constructed in it, so small she wasn't entirely sure that she would be able to fit through it, but it was a room with a lock and a fireplace and it was hers. Finally. She was very much looking forward to being woken up by someone who was not yelling "SHUT UP!" in French. Looking at the fireplace she thought it would probably be best if she went to the castle as a rather tall Draco would have difficulty fitting through there.

She went up to bed early that night, not wanting to leave it longer than necessary. She stepped into the fireplace (which was just big enough if she bent a little) and reappeared in Lakeside's grand drawing room. It was as though no time had passed, Blaise didn't bother looking up to greet her as she staggered across to a sofa and collapsed on top of Draco. She lay down taking up the entire thing with her head in his lap. Absent mindedly he began to stoke her hair and continued his conversation with Blaise as though a young girl stepping out of a fire and into his lap was a regular occurrence that no longer bothered him. He supposed it was really. Slowly Ginny regained enough energy to sit up and take part in conversation. She sat in Draco's lap and leaned against his shoulder with his arm around her, still playing with her hair. Blaise was again giving them a knowing and rather evil smile but neither of them particularly cared. "Guys, do you know how much longer you can keep this up?" asked Blaise, watching Draco stoke Ginny's hair, completely aware that they could not just walk into the Slytherin or Gryffindor common room and start doing that. The two exchanged a glance, they had carefully not talked about going back to school but by the looks of things that was no longer an option. "Four days. That's how long you've got until school; four days. What then?" Ginny had no idea where or why Blaise was going with that and would have asked him, very politely, why the hell it was his business, if Draco hadn't been answering him. Evidently Draco saw why they should tell Blaise and since Draco knew Blaise better than she did and was usually a lot more secretive than her, she trusted that he had a reason. She really did not want to have to think about going back to Hogwarts and becoming no one to Draco again.

"Well Blaise, it seems we have very limited options. We could forget everything go back to ignoring each other. Or we could go round ignoring and insulting each other while sneaking out at night to have sex behind the green houses." He said matter-of-factly, winking at her and smiling.  
>"Or?" prompted Blaise, waiting for the third option, he knew it was coming as he could think of at least two more. "Or we could pretend nothing has changed. We could forget to mention that the bond unstuck and just walk around Hogwarts pretending to be stuck together again until everyone remembers that we both went to our own homes for Christmas and works out that we're just pretending. What say you Ginevra?" Ginny bit her lip. She didn't really like any of those ideas but knew better than to suggest they just dated and let the world piss off. Her family would find out and, god forbid, Draco's family would find out and her family would kill Draco and his family would kill both of them and would all just be rather messy. Draco looked intensely at Ginny, waiting for her to comment. He sighed inwardly then without turning away from her, without looking out of her eyes, asked Blaise, "Your comment Blaise?" Blaise cleared his throat, and said,<br>"Whatever you chose, you're going to choose the wrong thing. You could sneak around but someone would notice. You could ignore each other but you'd both be miserable. You could pretend but you'd be discovered. You could just say "fuck the world" and do what you want, but they'd kill you. You're both screwed."  
>"Why thank you Blaise, for you kind and very helpful advice. Now does anyone have anything constructive to say?" No one did so they announced the meeting adjourned for the night and went to bed.<p>

Ginny was able to manage one more visit before term started, this one was all day. It was Friday, on Sunday they would catch the Hogwarts' Express back to school, they would have to make a decision. But strangely this was not on the top of Ginny's mind as she stepped out of the fire into Draco's room. He was sat in a chair, reading a book which he threw down at once as she emerged from the flames. He crossed over to her and in seconds had her in his arms. After several minute, of fairly passionate kissing they broke apart, "Hey Draco!" she said cheerfully, breathing hard and beaming at him. "Hello Ginny."

For a while they did not manage to get much decided, for some reason. Eventually though, there was no way of delaying it any longer. They sat on Draco's bed, leaning back against the wall with their arms around each other. "We're screwed Ginny." Said Draco thoughtfully. "Blaise is completely right, as usual. We can't win, whatever we choose." Ginny nodded, somehow reassured by this thought. She looked up at him and couldn't help but smile. Even if it was for just a few more days, Draco was hers. "Well that's good. All the options suck, which one sucks the least?" she asked him, he couldn't help but laugh.

Finally, they were decided. They couldn't have pretended to be bonded as even if no one remembered that they'd gone to different sides of the country for Christmas, Snape would've found out somehow and Draco didn't know which way Snape was leaning now, towards Lucius and the Dark Lord or towards the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore, away from Lucius and, by default, towards Draco. So that idea was out. The whole "fuck the world" approach just wasn't going to work; they'd both be shunned and probably killed. They couldn't ignore each other; they couldn't just forget everything about each other and pretend that nothing had ever happened. So, sneaking around became the only option left.

Once on the train Malfoy and Blaise set off to find a compartment. Unlike Ginny they knew they would never have to look for an empty one as Crabbe and Goyle would be sure to ensure the emptiness of any compartment. Draco refused to admit it to Blaise but he knew he would miss Ginny this term, even before Christmas he had gotten used to, even quite liked her presence. Fortunately (or unfortunately, whatever way you choose to look at it) Blaise knew exactly what was on his friend's mind. Even if he was doing his normal act of blank, bored nonchalance, Blaise, as one of only two people who could read Draco properly, could see that he missed the redhead already. Making some excuse Draco got up to leave the compartment, following the no-so-subtle flash of red hair that had streaked past outside. God, they weren't even at Hogwarts yet and already their whole sneaking around thing was just getting annoying.

Much to Blaise's indifference they continued to have nightmares. They could not risk having Ginny floo herself over to the Slytherin dorms, while no one who shouldn't be there would be and of those who would be, Greg and Vince were far too deeply asleep and wouldn't care anyway if he told them not to, Theo was clever enough to mind his own business, even if he was interested and Blaise wouldn't tell, they couldn't risk Ginny being noticed missing by her friends. So both of them continued to have nightmares and Draco would send Ginny owls to wake her up.

Unfortunately for Ginny she was now getting even less sleep than before and had never quite mastered the rejuvenating charm herself so she was constantly tired. Whenever Ginny and Draco sat next each other in lessons, it had been decided that she was good enough to stay in seventh year subjects and sit her NEWTs early, he would try and charm her without anyone else noticing but many teachers had decided to swap them around after Christmas so that they sat on opposite sides of the room, just as they had done with her brother. The Weasley/ Malfoy reputation for nasty fights with each other prevented almost every teacher from keeping the sat with each other unless absolutely necessary. Only one teacher kept them sat next to each other and Draco had two possible explanations for why.

This one teacher was of course none other than Severus Snape, who refused to disrupt his seating plan for anything. They had worked together before; they would continue to work together now. A plausible explanation was that after hearing what Draco had done over the summer and being a fervent supporter of the Dark Lord, Snape wanted to punish Draco for renouncing the Deatheaters. However Snape, like Zabini, was far too observant for his own good, and what Draco thought was probably more likely was that Snape knew about him and Ginny. He did not tell Ginny about either of his theories, he had more important things to do in the precious time they had together.

No one questioned Draco's coming and goings, they didn't dare, but unfortunately for Ginny she was subject to such scrutiny. She had to make up large essays that needed to be done alone in the library and detentions for not completing said essays just to snatch a few extra minutes with Draco. Not that it wasn't worth it of course, but Ginny didn't like having to lie to her best friends. She also didn't like having to give things up, if she wanted to spend a day with Draco then it would have to be a Hogsmeade day when everyone else was out of the castle, which meant that neither of them could go to the village. Claiming an extra-long essay from Snape due in on Monday Ginny stayed behind and took the opportunity to get up late and wander down to the Slytherin common room.


	8. Chapter 8

Ginny wasn't particularly worried about Snape; she and Draco had never shown any form of friendship towards each other in company (other than Blaise's) let alone anything more. As far as she was concerned, the Potions Master was just as oblivious to her and Draco's relationship as everyone else.

Draco, however, spent a possibly unhealthy amount of time thinking about things like this, for rather unpleasant reasons. Snape's possible knowledge of this relationship had the potential to kill him, Draco knew that his father had almost stretched to that upon his renouncing the Dark Lord, dating a Blood Traitor was just the icing on the cake and the last of Lucius' reserves about the murder of his son would've melted. If Snape knew, and Draco had a firm idea that he did, this would settle, once and for all, the dispute over his loyalties. As a skilled occlomense, if anyone was hiding their loyalties from the Dark Lord, it could only be Severus. But all that Snape had sacrificed for the cause made it unlikely. Who could even begin to guess at the man's loyalties? He was little short of a genius and the world's greatest actor.

It seemed to be becoming more and more likely that Snape knew about them; especially after what he had to tell them after Potions one lesson. The bell had just rung and Snape had given them all permission to pack up. Just as they were about to leave he called out,

"Malfoy, Weasley, wait behind!" They knew better than to try and leave so, exchanging a worried look, they headed slowly to the front of the classroom and stood in front of Snape's desk. Unusually he addressed Ginny first. "Weasley, I have noticed that since returning from Christmas your marks have dropped considerably. Have you any explanation for this?" Ginny blushed slightly and shook her head, trying to ignore Snape's sneer. "Of course not. Since the Headmaster has decided you will remain in this class and take your NEWTs this year, I recommend that you try to improve your grades as I refuse to have a single student fail this class. Understand."

"Yes." Muttered Ginny, "Sir." She added quickly. She turned to go,

"Excuse me Miss Weasley, I did not recall saying you were permitted to leave." He smirked at her, he knew he was playing with her temper and would love to have a reason to give her a detention, so she held her tongue. "As you, Miss Weasley, are failing, I would like you to be tutored by Mr Malfoy here whose grades are exceptional." Ginny stared at Snape; there was no need to feign the shock. Seriously? He was not only making a Weasley and a Malfoy sit together every lesson, he had decided that they should spend their spare time together as well? Was he insane? Not that Ginny was exactly complaining at an excuse to spend more time with her boyfriend, but even so. "Well Mr Malfoy, do you agree?"

"Yes sir." Said Draco in his most carefully cultivated, completely emotionless voice. The corners of Snape's mouth twitched.

"You may go." He turned his back on them and occupied himself with a seemingly fascinating task, blocking them out completely. Silently Ginny was still marvelling at what the hell Snape was thinking. Draco was thinking; "He knows."

And Snape did know, of course he knew. Severus Snape was an incredibly intelligent man and he hoped that Draco was smart enough to see what he was trying to tell him: that he knew; that he was fine with it and he supported Draco's decisions. All of them.

Draco was smart, smart enough to see that Snape accepted his choice in girlfriend and _possibly_, just possibly, he was on his side, whatever side that was, against his father. Draco doubted whether Lucius knew which side his once good friend had taken and found himself hoping not. Somehow being against his father just this once seemed safer. He was going to have to find a way to check as there was a truly horrible possibility that Severus was not really on his side, but Draco pushed this idea away. He had more important things to do than become paranoid over this kind of crap. He had a girlfriend to tutor.

Snape's tutoring made sneaking around so much easier because; even if they weren't allowed to look as though they were enjoying themselves too much, it gave them an excuse to be seen in public together.

"So Ginevra darling, where shall we start?" Asked Draco with a small smirk. Ginny smiled back and hit him in the chest, giving him an excuse to show off a little, lifting up his shirt to show his amazing abs. "No, it's okay Ginevra, you haven't bruised it." He smiled at her small scowl, she hated it when he showed off like that, there was no way she would be able to concentrate on her Potions now he'd gone and done that, she'd be thinking about that rather than lessons all afternoon.

Just for good measure she decided to him his again, on the shoulder this time. Fortunately even Draco Malfoy had some qualms about removing his shirt completely in the library, even if it was in a corner as deserted as theirs. "So, the banishment draught, let's have a look at that." He said with a smile, turning to the appropriate page in the text book. Ginny smiled, grateful for once that Snape had actually done something to help her, whether or not he had meant to.

Ginny's friends were admittedly a little confused as to why Ginny spent so much time with her Potions tutor, she spent most of almost every lunch time and sometimes an hour or so after school too supposedly learning about Potions.

"I just don't get it Ginny! You hate Potions! Why are you spending so much time learning about it now when you could be spending time with your friends?" Amy was most decidedly uncooperative about this, whereas Colin, although he agreed with Amy, tended to just melt into the background while this topic was being discussed as he really hated arguments. "I'm sorry Gin but I really don't understand why all of a sudden Potions tutoring has become so damn important." Amy looked at Ginny, trying to work it out, then her strongest area of expertise kicked in. "You've been seeing a guy." Previously Ginny would've gasped and turned red at this expert analysis, but seriously, like she'd still be doing that after all this time with Draco. She just smiled and told Amy perfectly honestly that she had been with her Potions tutor. Amy didn't buy it but could tell there was no point trying to get any more out of Ginny. "Fine, fine Ginny, whatever you say. But just promise me you will tell me who he is soon."

After that Ginny tried to spend a little less time doing her "Potions Tutoring" and so was forced to make certain sacrifices. The next weekend was Hogsmeade but Ginny, wanting to spend more time with Draco, pleaded mountains of homework and stayed behind. She rose unusually early for a weekend and by ten o'clock she was making her way down to the now deserted dungeons. Draco had long since told her the password so getting in was no problem. There were unfortunately a couple of first years in the common room but Draco had shown her a way to get right across the room, creeping around the pillars in the shadowier corners to the dorms while completely invisible to anyone but the Prince himself, and being the Prince he as unconcerned by this. She crept around undetected ad slipped up to his room.

A few hours later and Draco had untangled himself from her and had decided to actually get on with some of his homework. They weren't called Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests for nothing, they were bloody hard.

"By the way Ginny, we'll have to be out of here by one, Blaise needs to come up." He said distractedly, trying to work out why his equation was unbalanced.

"Why does that matter? He already knows."

"Ah, he prepared me for this answer. He says that doesn't mean he wants to be here when we are as he knows what we'll be doing." Ginny smiled. Despite the fact that Blaise had been adamant that she and Draco get together, they did seem to have the gift of making him uncomfortable after a while. She supposed it was just because he and Draco were like brothers, she herself wasn't too keen on watching her brothers having heavy make-out sessions with their girlfriends. Suddenly a thought occurred to her, one that she couldn't believe she hadn't asked about before.

"I thought you didn't trust anyone, how come you trust Blaise? You keep telling me that all Slytherins are manipulative bastards and no matter how close they are they're always looking for a way to stab each other in the back." Draco smiled at her.

"That's true, and there's nothing sweeter than blackmail. Let's just say it pays to have dirt on the guy who knows everything. Especially if that secret is worse than both of yours" He smirked.

"And what do you know about Blaise? And what do you mean both of your secrets"

"I could tell you about Blaise," he said slowly. "Or," he turned to the door, "you could save me the trouble and tell her yourself." The door opened, revealing Blaise standing there slightly awkwardly but smiling nevertheless. "So Blaise, will you tell her? Or shall I?" Blaise kept on smiling.

"Or, we could see if she already knows?" Blaise suggested and both Slytherins donned almost identical crosses between smirks and smiles.

"Know what?" asked Ginny, perplexed but starting to get a little annoyed.

"Come on Ginny, surely you've noticed by now?" teased Draco. Ginny shook her head, still confused. "Think about it, your first night in here, who was the only one who barely even looked up when you came in in your adorable little pieces of cotton?" Ginny's cheeks coloured a little as she recalled the first night she and Draco had been bonded and she had emerged from the bathroom in her very skimpy little cotton pyjamas. Draco had looked at her for a moment then seemed to be bored already while all his pervy little friends had ogled her.

Blaise's smile was still in place, if a little weak, while Draco's was becoming more of a smirk.

"Yeah, what about it?" she answered, getting a little angrier.

"Well," said Blaise with a small glance at his friend, his smile definitely less genuine than it had been a minute ago. "Let's just say that gorgeous as you are, I would rather shag your brother than you." Both boys seemed to find this idea amusing and they both started laughing. Though they both found it very funny, Blaise only laughed for a short while before he stopped and just stood beside the door that he had made definitely sure was closed, smiling still, looking far too relaxed for it to be genuine. Ginny was aware that her jaw had dropped slightly.

"Wha-what?" Draco and Blaise exchanged a smirk.

"Not that I really would like to go anywhere near any of your brothers but," Blaise shrugged, "You get the point". He went over to his bed to retrieve something, probably the thing he had come up to get in the first place. Ginny suddenly remembered that Zabini hadn't even looked up to see her walk in, had never cared when they talked at night how much or little she was wearing. She shut her mouth quickly but was unable to do anything about the scarlet colour her cheeks were turning. Blaise had found what he was looking for and got up to leave, first sending a slightly concerned look in Draco's direction.

"Don't worry Blaise, its fine. She's got almost as much as me." Blaise nodded and left, leaving Draco and Ginny alone.

"What did you mean by I've got almost as much as you?" Asked Ginny as soon as the door had closed.

"I meant that neither of us is going to tell anyone that Blaise is gay because we've both got secrets on the line. And since I'm not the one with the hoard of angry brothers, I think that particular secret is worth a little more to you."

"Then why have I not got more than you, rather than almost as much?"

"Because I've got more secrets. Now get out of here so poor Blaise can come up and do his homework."

"Draco," asked Ginny tentatively one afternoon when they were in the library doing homework,

"Hmm?" replied Draco distractedly, trying to work out exactly what it was about snargaluffs that made such successful degenerative concoctions.

"You remember at Christmas, when Blaise was complaining about his mother's new husband? And he said he'd rather do what you did?" Draco looked up at her curiously; he knew where she was going with this but… "And you said you got disinherited?" she looked at him, a little scared, searching for signs that he might cut her off and blank over, when she found none she continued cautiously, "Draco, what, what did you do, to get disinherited?" to her surprise and immense relief, he smiled at her. It was a shallow smile, hardly there and what was there was hardly real, but still a smile.

He pulled her over to him and checked surreptitiously that there was no one watching them, then proceeded to roll up his sleeves. When he pulled up his left one she couldn't stop herself from gasping, he was showing her his scar, the one that until now he had still completely shut off from her when she mentioned it. It was a horrible mark, a really ugly scar and she tried not to look at it but he shook his head.

"No Ginny, look at it. How do you think I got it?" she shook her head, almost afraid to speak, she had no idea. "What do you see on my arm that isn't there?" he whispered into her ear. She shook her head again, "Oh come on Ginny, you do know this. If I'd showed you last year, what would you have seen?" then it clicked.

"Draco, you don't have a mark." She whispered. He smiled.

"No Ginny, I don't. That's why I got disinherited. I'm meant to be a Deatheater. I didn't like it, I left. I got rid of everything and I am no longer a Malfoy." She stared at him, then down at his arm.

"You, you got rid of it? But how?" she whispered, now very scared. A flicker of something that looked like pain crossed his face and for a moment she thought he was going to shut her out, then the moment passed and he swallowed,

"I'd rather not talk about it." He pulled his sleeves back down and sat back against the wall. She'd never seen him drop his guard so thoroughly, he looked alone, desolate. She put her arm around him and buried her face into his chest, glad to feel his arms around her too.

"You were right you know." She whispered to him, "I didn't believe you at the time but you were right. No one knows you. Everyone thinks that you are your father, that you're a cold, manipulative bastard with no heart who hates anything and everything that is not completely pure and perfect, but here you with a blood traitor brat, a burned off mark and a gay best friend. Do you just like contradicting people Draco?" he laughed quietly,

"I guess you probably could say that Ginevra. Hard not to when your life has been practically preordained by strangers. It's just quite fun to see their faces when they find the book they've been writing on my life is all wrong."

The next morning arrived with a letter for Ginny. Erol, the family's owl grey owl, collapsed into Collin's bowl of cereal, much to Colin's displeasure. Ginny and Amy let out a small giggle, not least because of the disgustedly disgruntled expression on Colin's face.  
>After pulling the bird out of the cereal, Ginny removed the letter tied to his leg, and groaned.<p>

"What's up Ginny?"

"Nothing Amy, nothing." Said Ginny tiredly

Amy gave her a curious look. "Then what was that massive groan about?"

"Mum wants me to go home for the Easter holidays."

"Oh."

Amy and Colin had heard more than enough about Ginny's disastrous family Christmas to know why this was a bad idea. They therefore exchanged a small glance and then turned to their breakfasts, waiting for Ginny to start venting. They exchanged another puzzled glance when she did nothing of the sort. Ginny sat calmly, her eyes shut, a surprisingly peaceful expression on her face.

"Err, Gin? What are you doing?"

Ginny opened her eyes again and looked at Colin. "I'm not going home for Easter"

"That's great Gin but it doesn't really answer my question."

"Oh. What was your question?"

"What the hell were you doing?"

"What that? I was trying to calm myself down. You know how my Weasley temper gets sometimes." Both Amy and Colin nodded, they knew only too well. What they didn't know was Ginny trying, and actually succeeding, to restrain said temper. She had always said a good bit of yelling cleared the air, been proud of her temper. Ginny saw her two friends looking oddly at her and sighed.

"Guys, calm down. I just don't think it's all that much of a good idea to get annoyed for no reason, especially as I'm not even going."

"What do you mean, you're _not_ _going_?" Asked Amy in shock, "You can't not go!" Amy had been round to the Weasley's house one Summer and met Mrs Weasley for herself; there was no way if she wanted her children home they would not come, by conventional, optional methods, or otherwise.

"I can too not go Amy. Read this; Fred and George are not only keeping their business open through owl order, they're making new products!" Amy grimaced.

"Okay, point taken."

Ginny pulled quill and parchment from her bag and wrote her mother a return letter. It briefly outlined what Ginny had been up to at school, but the main part of the letter was Ginny listing as many reasons as she could think of why it would be better she stayed at Hogwarts, finishing with a short statement declaring her absolute intention not to go anywhere.

"Right. I'm getting a howler tomorrow." Said Ginny as she watched Erol fly off with her letter and most of her bacon. Amy smiled,

"You sure are Gin." She putting an arm around Ginny's shoulders and giving her a squeeze. "Now come on. To defence!" She cried, raising an arm into the air valiantly before charging from the hall. Colin rolled his eyes and followed her, leaving a laughing Ginny examining her timetable.

"Okay Draco, this time I actually need you to be my potions tutor, not just fooling around. I haven't got a bloody clue what in Merlin's name Snape was on about earlier." Ginny dumped her bag onto the table in the library and flopped down onto the chair. This was one of Ginny's favourite places in the whole castle, not because she was Hermione, but because this small secluded corner was just lovely. It was quiet, but not eerily silent, and sheltered by high shelves, fencing them into a small square with the backs of the shelves. There was a small fire on one wall and high windows on the other with a beautiful view of the lake so it was always warm and light. There was just the one small, old table and a few chairs in this little space, but it didn't need any more.

"I was serious Draco." Said Ginny was she felt him behind her.

"And so am I." He said quietly into her neck, wrapping his arms around her.

"Come on Draco, work now, play later." She got up and turned round to face him sternly. He smiled and reluctantly took a seat, pulling out his potions books.

"Alright fine then. The Unctuous Unction was invented by Gregory the Smarmy in 1191. It places the drinker into a euphoric stupor and convinces them that the brewer is their closest friend. Which ingredient is it that confuses the drinker enough to believe it?"

"Errm… Scurvy grass?"

"Try again."

"Lovage?"

"Correct."

Draco continued to help Ginny with her incredibly confusing potions for a while, before becoming bored and deciding that it was really more rewarding to do something else instead, pulling her onto his lap and putting his lips against hers. After about half an hour of rather blissfully kissing, Ginny eventually pulled away smiling, then smiling harder at the smirk that was spread across his face.

"Draco?" She asked pensively.

"Hmm?"

"What are you doing for Easter?"

"Nothing."

"Oh."

"Why?"

"Me neither."

"Oh. So we're both at Hogwarts?"

Ginny's face now spread with a smirk as well as they considered the fun they could have.

Since they were living in Dark and Dangerous Times, most parents wanted their children home for the holidays as much as possible and Hogwarts was nearly deserted. The house tables in the Great Hall were abandoned in favour of a single table that was barely half full with a roughly even spread of each house, though a few less Gryffindors. Remaining in Gryffindor was Jimmy Peakes and a few of his fourth year friends, Romilda Vain and some other annoyingly giggly girls, Natalie and her sister Mary McDonald and a few assorted first years. There were about fifteen students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, most of whom Ginny couldn't even name, and surprisingly around twenty Slytherins.

"Here for the same reason as me." Whispered Draco as he passed her, noticing her puzzled looks at the group of Slytherins at the end of the table who he soon sat down next to. She noticed him nod a greeting to Harper, his fellow team member in her year who was a total twat, which was enthusiastically returned. She doubted he had ever managed to have a proper conversation with the Prince of Slytherin.

Draco left the hall shortly before her, sending a wink in her direction as she left. She excused herself hastily from the McDonalds and followed him out onto the grounds.

It was a beautiful day, it was warm and the sun shone brightly overhead, the light making pretty patterns through the leaves underneath the great beech tree by the lake. Ginny leaned again the tree, staring up into the canopy. Draco lay across her, his head in her lap he too stared up, but at her face rather than the tree. Absently she stoked his hair thinking deeply.

"Draco," she asked pensively,

"Hmm" he replied distractedly,

"I've been thinking."

"Oh no." he joked, smiling, "Not again. It's never good news when you start thinking Ginevra darling." She looked down at him and smiled, though that didn't prevent her from cuffing him playfully around the head. She ignored his protesting "Ow!" and continued,

"What do you think we are Draco?" he half sat up looking slightly worried, she laughed at his expression. "Oh Draco, I don't mean that. I don't want to have "the talk" that most girls seem to think is necessary." He relaxed slightly and lay back down; her hand resumed stroking his hair. "I was just thinking, wouldn't it be funny if we went from hating each other's guts to being in love." She laughed a little and he smiled back. He sat up and put his arm around her.

"Yeah, that would be a great story to tell your family wouldn't it? I'd say it would go down rather well actually. It would be even more entertaining if we were." Ginny raised her eyebrows at him,

"And what makes you so sure we're not?" she asked in mock outrage. He laughed and kissed her, she loved how much more open he was now.

"You're right Ginevra darling; I certainly claim no expertise in these matters. But seriously, I'm eighteen, you're seventeen. We're way too young to fall in love. Only people in story books can fall in love like this. And I assure you Ginny, my life is no storybook." He smiled at her, knowing that he would see past the smile in his eyes. It was impossible for him to think of his life without a certain amount of sadness, it had just been too shit for that. Ginny smiled all the more for seeing it, appreciating how few people had ever been allowed to see.

Ginny had had possibly the best day of her life, for Draco it had definitely been by far the best. They had stayed sat under the tree until past lunch, until they started to get seriously hungry, then they had gone down to the kitchens. Once there, Dobby had greeted them with a nervous smile, but after Draco had assured him that Mister Lucius Malfoy was not there, he calmed down enough to beam at them and, on Draco's insistence, hand them enough chocolate cake to make them really rather ill if they ate it all. They then proceeded back outside to eat most of it, saving some for dinner.

Ginny had complained that with the mass of calories and the lack of nutrition she was surely going to get fat. Draco had just laughed. "What, do you want a fat girlfriend?" She'd asked him.

"No, but I don't see exactly how this particular girlfriend is possibly going to get fat any time soon. Here." He took a forkful of cake and shoved it into her mouth before she could protest, laughing again at her silent indigence as her mouth was too full to say anything.

"What the hell was that for?" She had spluttered after swallowing. He continued to laugh.

"I just wanted to stop you complaining about getting fat."

She had started to smile and make some comment about how sweet he was, when he had to go and ruin it. "On your own of course I may have to agree with you, but since _I_ took you jogging in the mornings you should be doing okay." This comment of course denied him the kiss she had been going to give him and instead merited him getting a handful of chocolate cake thrown it his face.

"Careful," She had teased, "Dark stains don't usually come off something that pale."

Now they were still sat on the grounds together, still under the same tree, watching the sun set.

"We should really go inside you know." He whispered into her ear. He leaned against the tree, his arms wrapped around her waist as she sat on his lap. She shook her head childishly, burying it into his stomach while snuggling into him, making herself nice and comfy. He smiled down at her happily.

"Come on Gin, it's getting cold."

"Then you should hug me tighter shouldn't you." She retorted.

"Fine then, but don't blame me when we both die of frostbite."

"Draco?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm freezing."

"Well I'm not surprised, it's nearly midnight and we're still lying out here under a tree without even coats."

"It's more fun like this."

"I'm sure it is Ginevra, but as you said it's fucking freezing and we're going to die so let's go inside."

"Do we have to?"

"What? But you just said you were freezing?"

"I am, I still don't want to go in."

He sighed, there was honestly no point in fighting her. "Fine then, come here."

She crawled even closer to him and he wrapped his arms around her tightly, conjuring a blanket to wrap around them both. "There. That better you lunatic?" She nodded sleepily, a tired smile lifting her lips.

"Night Draco." She whispered as her heavy eyes flickered shut.

Warm, it was very warm where she was. And quiet, no noise at all. Except breathing, there was someone breathing next to her. Quiet breathing, not an intrusive sound. She liked it.

There was a weight on her waist, a nice one, not too heavy. Comfortable and comforting. Good weight.

There was light coming through her eyelids, she opened her eyes for a moment, the world was unfocused and blurry and, green. Yes, green.

She shut her eyes again, light hurt. And this was too soft and comfy to get up from. Bed. Yes, definitely a bed, she could feel the silken sheets and covers and that was definitely a mattress beneath her.

Hang on, go back to the whole bed thing. She shouldn't have thought bed. Something told her bed was wrong, there shouldn't be a bed. Something was very wrong with that. And warm and breathing, they were wrong too. And green, why was it all green?

Fuck it all, she was going to have to open her eyes now.

Yes, green, bed and breathing. The Slytherin dorm. What the bloody hell was she doing in the Slytherin dorm? Outside, she was sure she was meant to be outside.

She turned around and found the answer to her questions, and the source of the weight around her waist, smiling at her. "Morning Ginevra."

She smiled back, her hand sliding up to bury her fingers in his hair. She really did love it all messed up like that. The arm around her waist pulled her closer and she sighed with pleasure as she pressed his lips softly against hers. It really was a lovely way to wake up.

Draco slowly reached up and pried her fingers reluctantly away from him, breaking the kiss. "Come on Ginny, they'll miss you if you're not back."

Ginny sighed. Frankly she couldn't care less who missed her. It was very irritating that she had to keep sneaking around, even though there was no one to tell on them in either of their dorms.

"_Ginny_." Draco's voice carried a small amount of warning and an even smaller plea. She buried her face deeper into the pillow, it was soft and warm and she really didn't want to leave.

"Ginevra," Began Draco, and official and business-like tone to his voice, "If you do not get up from my bed right now, I will personally pick you up, throw you into the fire and send you off to the Burrow and you'll be lucky if you can ever get back here"

Ginny considered this for a moment, wondering whether or not to call his bluff. Eventually she decided not to because knowing him he'd probably shove her in the fireplace just to be unexpected.

"Fine." Grudgingly she got up and went into the bathroom to try and make it believable that she hadn't just had sex. She hadn't of course, but she was aware what her hair did when she first woke up. Falling asleep with twigs and stuff in her hair hadn't helped.

She stuck out her tongue at Draco as she left the room.

"Mature as ever Ginevra." He laughed, giving her a quick kiss.

"See you later." She smiled and crept down the stairs, cursing how early these damn Slytherins got up. Before eight o'clock in the morning over Christmas in Gryffindor tower would mean a completely empty common room. Fortunate really as Godric Gryffindor had wanted to encourage honesty in his students so there was nowhere to hide in his common room.

Ginny made it up to Gryffindor tower and into her empty dorm undetected. She briefly considered going back to sleep but she knew there was not point so she just got dressed.

Quarter past eight. Breakfast in the holiday didn't start until nine. In the remaining forty five minutes she could either procrastinate, read a book or just stare into the fire for example, or get some actual work done. As much as she liked procrastinating and as skilled as she was at it, she reluctantly went with the homework option and pulled out her books, taking them down the stairs into the common room.

Draco decided to remain in his own room once Ginny had left rather than joining the rest of his remaining house mates who would surely be up by now. He was looking forward to Blaise coming back, his mother (or rather, his mother's husband) had decided it would be nice for Blaise to come and see them for a bit over the holiday. Draco wasn't sure whether it was Blaise or his mother who had fought the hardest to bring the time he had to stay down, it was probably both, but they had managed to reduce it from the entire two weeks to just a few days. But still, Blaise wouldn't be back until Wednesday or Thursday and so if Draco went down he would surely be subjected to the attempts and conversation administered upon him by some idiot or another, taking advantage of the absence of his body guards.

Draco knew he would have to pretty much ignore Ginny for the day as he went down to breakfast. He didn't honestly think anyone would guess but with only a handful of people from each house it would be a lot easier for people to notice things and he was not about to go taking unnecessary risks. So today (and probably the next day, just to make sure) would be incredibly dull. Well, it wasn't like his mountain of homework would get itself done.

Breakfast was a subdued affair down on the Slytherin end of the single table being used for meals. While the other houses were integrated around the middle of the table, the Slytherins had stuck together and were sat in a small clump at the far end of the table, as far away from everyone else as possible. From the twinkle in their Headmaster's eye as he looked at them, Draco guessed that by lunchtime the tables would've shrunk by at least half to force the Slytherins to socialise. He decided he would probably be taking his meals in the kitchens as much as possible.

The remaining Slytherins weren't so bad he supposed, eyeing them critically and smirking internally as the first years under his gaze seemed to shrivel up a bit. They were all either half-bloods or neutral pure-bloods, an d all quite a bit younger than him. There were no seventh years beside himself, and only Harper from fifth year. Warrington had left but his fourth year brother and second year sister were there with a few of their friends, as was Vaisey's third year brother and friends. A surprising number of Draco's quidditch team were not blatant supporters of the Dark Lord, though many of them still were.

Draco spotted Harper making his way into the hall and decided to begin a conversation with Emily Flint, a fourth year. She was quite pretty and almost able to hold a decent conversation with, unlike Harper who was a bit of a twat. He sensed he would be spending quite a lot of his time with her over the next few days as she was one of the only people who didn't annoy him until he wanted to jinx them, bore him to death or freeze with fear every time he looked at them. He wasn't sure quite what he had done to merit such an extreme response but that was how it was nevertheless.

He finished he breakfast quickly and left as soon as he could, carefully avoiding looking at the other end of the table and amusing himself by being a basilisk and freezing all the first years with a glance. He headed straight off to the library, choosing the largest and most central table and taking up only a small corner, wondering if anyone would dare to try and sit there. Several plucky looking Gryffindors almost did, but seemed to decide against it. Draco smiled down at his work.

By the Monday morning of the holidays Draco had completed most of his work and was very bored. It was therefore with an ill grace that he dropped into the library chair and sprawled his books out in front of him and set to work. After about half an hour of his Transfiguration essay (which was not going well) he saw in his peripheral vision, two third year Ravenclaws tentatively drawing out chairs on the opposite side of the table. He looked up; his face wearing an expression which he assumed must be utterly terrifying as they suddenly both froze and stared at him in trepidation and slight fear. "Get. Out." Thee obliged instantly. He was somewhat placated, but his bad mood remained, and indeed worsened as he became more and more stuck on his essay.

Another hour later and he was glaring at the parchment in front of his which was only half of the necessary length. Why oh why oh why did there have to be so many complications to summoning matter out of non-being? Opposite him, just within his vision, he saw a chair being drawn out.

"Get the fuck out." He hissed, looking up.  
>"Zabini?" Blaise looked very much amused at how his face had changed from a fierce glare to pleasant surprise and it was only when Draco asked him why he was back so early that he stopped laughing.<p>

"Take a guess." He slumped back slightly in the chair while Draco gave him what would've been a sympathetic smile if he hadn't been masking it due to the presence of others. It came out as somewhat of a small sympathetic smirk, which didn't really work very well and wasn't very obvious.

"Well, I suppose it is safe to surmise that you and your dear mum and dad..."

"Don't call him that." Ground out Blaise angrily,

"Were just having such fun together that you thought that you'd come back to Hogwarts to invite all your dear little friends to a belated wedding celebration so that everyone can be just as happy as you about your mum marrying Number Eleven." Blaise glared and Draco smirked back. "Alright fine, you were having a shit time and you tried everything up to and including suicide to get away."

"Pretty much."

"Oh good, I love it when I'm right."

They left the library so that they could have a slightly more private conversation and headed back up to their dorms. Essentially, Number Eleven had trapped them all in their smallest house, none of them were allowed to leave (even Mrs Zabini to go shopping) and they were going to spend the whole break together like a lovely proper family. Instantly Blaise and his mother had tried everything in their power to get out of it but nothing had worked until on Monday evening, Blaise had swallowed a numbing potion and several others before severing his own arm. He had been rushed to St Mungo's, then sent back to Hogwarts. "Thank god." Draco tried not to laugh as Blaise related the story, but it was hard.

(A/N Blaise obviously took the necessary precautions, the numbing potion prevented pain while the others would limit blood loss etc., just to stop you worrying. (yes he really was that desperate already)

"Well I'm glad you're back. There is officially no one decent to talk to here."

"I'm glad you're so concerned over my physical and mental well-being. Maybe next time I'll send you over instead."

Draco smiled, "Well then I don't see why you shouldn't see my family."

"Fair point, think I'll pass."

"Odd that."

Ginny too was just a little bit bored out of her mind. She had taken a permanent sanctuary in her little corner of the library as the common room was full of Romilda Vain and she really couldn't cope with that, but being in the library meant that she was also completely on her own with nothing but her homework for company and thus very bored. Well, nothing but her homework and Arnold. She smiled as the pygmy puff hummed and examined her homework with a highly intellectual expression as though he could've done much better. "You want to do it for me Arnold?" She asked, sceptical at his all-knowing attitude. Arnold stopped humming and glared at her reproachfully. She laughed and patted him on the head. "Nah don't worry, I'll get Draco to do it in a few days."

She slumped back in the chair and Arnold shuffled down her arm onto her knee, peering concernedly up at her. She smiled at him and began stroking him absently. Content that she was okay and that he was being stroked, Arnold started humming again happily. He shut his eyes blissfully, there was nothing pygmy puffs wanted more than to be stroked like that, but he occasionally opened an eye to check up on her, just to make sure she was alright. "It's okay Arnold, I'm fine. I'm just bored." She told him tiredly. "All my friends have gone home and I can't talk to Draco cause there's only about forty of us in this entire castle and people might notice which would kill us and for the first time my brother and his friends aren't here either so I can't even talk to them and I can't go up to the common room cause Romilda fucking Vain is there so just, arrgh." Ginny sighed, that little rant had actually her made her feel a lot better. It still didn't solve anything though.

"You know what Arnold, fuck it. No one's going to know anything."


	9. Chapter 9

Ginny really could sympathise with Eve, temptation was far too hard to ignore and the reward made succumbing _so_ worth it. But she got the better deal though, Eve only got an apple whereas she was getting Draco Malfoy.

So now she was lying draped across the gorgeous green leather sofa in front of the fire in the recently emptied Slytherin common room, her legs once again across Draco's lap as the two of them talked and laughed with their friend Blaise Zabini. Eve could keep the damn apple, Ginny had chosen the serpent instead.

Blaise had just finished relating the tragic tale of his weekend at home (his fifth home, the London town house) and Ginny's laughter was just beginning to die down. Even Blaise had managed to see the funny side, although he still wasn't laughing overly much at the still rather painful memory.

Once Ginny was entirely done laughing, she sat up and turned to Blaise. "Sorry, I know that's not really all that funny, it's just..."

"Hilarious." Supplied Draco with a smirk.

"Jeez, thanks for being so sympathetic guys." Said Blaise with a sarcastic smile.

"You're welcome." Replied Draco.

The two descended into a minor insult war, one which happened to regularly that Ginny, although amused, tuned out of it, her attention turning to Arnold who was shuffling around on the backs of all of the chairs, hoping from one to the next, and then onto Blaise's head. She repressed a giggle with difficulty and smiled up at her friend's new purple fluffy hat.

The verbal sparring match seemed to be over and Blaise shifted in his chair, not noticing Arnold fall to the floor with a soft thump. He was okay though, he just rolled over indignantly and glared up at a completely oblivious Blaise. Ginny smiled at him, but shifted her attention back to the other human occupants of the room.

"Anyway," Blaise was saying with a slightly grim expression, "At least I won't have to see him again. I don't reckon She'll be keeping him around much longer. I give him around two more months."

"That long?" Asked Draco, "Come on Blaise, be realistic."

Apparently the topic had shifted back to Blaise's "family" again.

"Well if there were any other holidays or anything coming up, he'd be gone by the end of the week, but there isn't really anything so he'll probably last a little longer." Explained Blaise, but Draco shook his head.

Ginny was fascinated and faintly sickened by how calmly and easily they were able to talk about how long a man had to live before he was murdered by his own wife, but she pushed it down. It wasn't their fault the way they had grown up, just because her family was happy and free of dark magic it didn't mean everyone else's was.

"Nah Blaise, have you not been reading the papers? Tazewell Thickness' wife died the other week, some kind of cauldron explosion I think, there's no way she'd miss a chance to get in there early with Lord Thickness, especially now his brother's head of law enforcement."

Blaise seemed to consider this for a moment, "Fair point Draco. Now I think of it She mentioned a ball or something in a few months' time that Thickness will definitely be at. Yeah, he's only got a few more weeks cause she'll need to be out of mourning by then. He might make it till the end of the month"

"You know what guys, as fascinating and faintly disturbing as this conversation has become, this is not the reason I'm here, strangely enough."

Blaise sighed and got up. "Fine, do what you want." He ignored Ginny's protests that that hadn't been what she'd meant at all with a smile.  
>"Not what you meant, but don't even try to say that you'll be sorry that now you can do whatever you want with your darling ferret." We winked back at her and shot a smirk at Draco as he headed up to his dorms, laughing a little at the glare on Draco's face.<p>

"Why is it that your annoying little friend is always right?" Grumbled Ginny with a small smile as she sat up and leaned towards Draco for a kiss.

* * *

><p>"Hey Ginny." Said a male voice seated beside Ginny at her table in the library.<p>

"Hey Colin." Ginny replied dully without really thinking. Then she looked up, suddenly aware that this person was not Colin. "Oh, Michael, hey. What are you doing here?" She asked, surprised.

"Nothing much Gin." He replied, making no move to take out any work or anything, just watching her. She looked back up from her essay at him, disconcerted by his stare. He looked away quickly when she met his gaze before turning back to her, she had evidently startled him.

But not nearly as much as he had startled her, since when was he calling her Gin again? She hadn't heard him call her that since last year, when they had been dating. "You okay Michael?" She asked, trying not to sound concerned about the fact that he was now calling her 'Gin'.

"Yeah, no I'm fine." He said, finally pulling some work from his bag.

A silence descended over the two, filled with some apparent nervousness from Michael and a desperation not to have to start a conversation from Ginny. Alas, she was not to be so fortunate.

"So..." He began, Ginny groaned internally. "I hear you're still single Gin."

Wow, what a tactful way to begin. Had she still been single, Ginny would've taken offence to that. As it was she was far too distracted with contemplating exactly how awful a start this had been. There was no way in hell she was going anywhere near Michael, they had been awful together, and especially not now she was with Draco.

"Uhuh." She replied distractedly, staring blankly down at the essay. Somehow he seemed to take this as encouragement as he pressed on.

"Things must be pretty rough for you at the moment. I bet you get kind of lonely now, what with Harry and Ron being gone and all."

"Not particularly."

"Even so," he pressed on, "There've got to be times when you wish there was someone."

"Not really."

"Oh, okay." Finally, he seemed to be getting the hint. "But even so," Or perhaps not, "If you ever do feel like that..."

Ginny did not want him to finish that sentence, "Yeah thanks Michael." She said flashing him a quick smile, "If I do feel like that, I'll come to you."

Ginny felt awful seeing his hopeful smile, "Okay, thanks Gin." He all but beamed at her as he put his stuff back in his bag. "I'll see you round."

She waited until he was out of sight before allowing her head to thump forwards and hit the desk. Why could things not be just a little bit simple for once? After banging her head against the table a few times she was feeling much better, apparently managing to destroy the brain cells holding the memory of that encounter for now.

It was only later while she was getting ready for bed that she looked in the mirror and saw part of the essay written backwards on her forehead, imprinted in the ink which apparently had not dried before she had slammed her head into it.

It was a few minutes past midnight, and not a sound could be heard in Gryffindor tower except the occasional snore and the scratching of a cat against a first year's door. Everyone was asleep, except the girl whose cat it was who seemed to have locked the door and was now unable to let the cat out. Well, everyone was in bed except for that one first year girl. Ginny Weasley was most reluctantly in bed and completely unable to sleep. Partly because she was mentally running through a list of all the spells she knew and despairing that none of them had the ability to remove indelible ink from foreheads, and another part because Michael should've been sorted in to Gryffindor.

Why was that worrying her? Although Michael was usually very sweet and considerate, he was one of the most stubborn and persistent people she had ever met. So if he had just decided he wanted her back, he wasn't going to give in. Which was not good, not good at all.

With a sigh she rolled over and gave up trying to think of how to get the ink off her head, she'd work that one out in the morning, and if not it's not like she didn't have any foundation.

After a few minutes of listening to Amy snore and mumble on about mer-people, Ginny had had enough. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep here, she might as well go sit in the common room. She grabbed a book off Amy's dressing table (she'd give it back, it was fine) and padded quietly downstairs, pausing to consider whether or not to help out the girl with the cat. She wanted to just leave it but figured that she probably should help.

Walking on a few steps down the stairs and hiding just round the corner so she wouldn't be seen (she couldn't be bothered with first years right now), she aimed her wand and whispered, "aloehomora". The door clicked open, much to the relief of both girl and cat. The former shut the door and went back to bed, the latter raced past Ginny down the stairs.

She smiled slightly and followed the cat, curling up on the armchair next to the one it had chosen by the dying fire with her book. The book turned out to be inexorably dull, the kind where the plot-line may as well have just been a stencil, boy meets girl, they fall in love, then they have an argument then get back together and live happily ever after. That kind of plot line. Ginny had just reached the point where the two lovers were staring dreamily into each-others' eyes for the twelfth time before slamming the book shut and dropping it onto the floor in disgust. That was the worst book she had ever read in her life.

A small pot of greyish powder sat upon the mantelpiece caught her eye. The ornate red jade and golden carriage clock beside it told her that it was now half past midnight. That was fine, there was still at least an hour and a half before Draco would kick her out. She grabbed the smallest pinch so that the amount would not be missed and threw it into the grate. The fire, which had previously been moments from going out, leapt to life with tall emerald flames. Looking around quickly to make sure no one saw, Ginny stepped in and whispered, "Slytherin common room".

It was only a few moments before she arrived there are there were only a very few fire places in between. She stepped out quickly and crouched down, scanning the room for anyone who might be watching. She couldn't see any observing eyes, but really didn't trust that. She dashed the few steps that would take her to the prince's seat and sat down quickly, checking the mirrors to ensure that no one else lurked in the shadowy common room. It was deserted. Thank god.

Now a lot more relaxed, Ginny crept through the room and up the stairs to the dorms, opening the 7th year boys' dorm a crack and peeking through before going in. A faint glow around the hangings closest to her told her that Draco was still awake with his light on, probably reading a book. She wasn't surprised he was awake, she guessed he was just in the habit of getting up at midnight.

She crept closer to the hangings, wanting to surprise him. It didn't work. The hangings flew open and a hand was pointing a wand steadily at her heart. "Oh, it's just you. Thank god." He whispered, then, taking notice of the fact that she was now frozen instinctively in place, eyes wide and more than a little scared, he reached out an arm and put it round her, guiding her gently to the bed.

She took a deep breath and smiled at him suddenly. "Hey."

"Hey." He smiled back.

"Any particular reason for the wand or just general paranoia?" she asked cheerfully. He chuckled softly and drew the hangings completely shut so he could silence them from the rest of the room.

"Just the paranoia I guess. Couldn't sleep?"

She shook her head.

"Guilty conscience?" He joked.

She smiled and shook her head again. "Nah, just got a lot on my mind."

"I can see that."

She gave him a questioning look.

"You've written it all down there." He told her seriously, looking at her forehead in amusement. She threw a pillow at him in retaliation, but he managed to bat it out of the way just in time. Damn quidditch reflexes. "So what's troubling you, aside for, I believe..." He checked her essay, "the theoretical advancements of human self-transfiguration."

"Oh, nothing much. Just the fact that you're now reading an essay off my forehead and I can't get it off.",

"Oh okay."

"Do you by any chance know how to remove indelible ink?"

"... maybe."

There was a moment's silence.

"Draaaco," began Ginny,

"Giiiinnyyyy," he replied teasingly,

"Since you're sooo smart," she wheedled, "Do you think you could possibly help me?"

He pretended to consider this. "What's it worth?" He smirked eventually.

"Bloody Slytherin."

She put her arms around her neck and kissed him, just letting him get into it before pulling away. She smirked at his expression, "You can have that once you've fixed the ink."

"Bloody Gryffindor. You're too Slytherin for your own good Ginevra."

"Yup, I sure am." She smiled at him endearingly, "But you love me anyway." He smirked and shook his head as he picked up his wand again.

"Sit down, lean against the wall so you're still." She shifted around on the bed and did as she was told, flinching a little instinctively as he put his wand to her head. "This'll take a minute." He told her. "By the way, just out of curiosity, how did your essay come to be written backwards on your forehead in indelible ink."

"I may have facepalmed the table."

"Oh Ginevra. No one can quite match you for ingenuity." He laughed, "And again, just out of curiosity, why were you facepalming the table?"

"Because I didn't want to put down my quill."

"Yes but why were you doing that at all?"

Ginny paused for a moment, something that did not escape his attention. "What?"

"Nothing." She was quick to reassure, "Michael was just being irritating, nothing new." She said it so casually that he might not have noticed that Michael was not a name he was used to hearing as one of her friends. Unfortunately for Ginny, he did notice this, and pairing this with the pause before her answer, there was no way she wasn't hiding something.

He said nothing, but his gentle grip holding her head stiff stiffened and his face blanked over, his silver grey eyes showing a flash of emotion before they too shut it out. Ginny, noticing this, swallowed. Either she told Draco about Michael and Draco then killed him, or she didn't say anything and Draco wouldn't trust her. His trust wasn't easily won in the first place and there was no way she wanted to lose it. Metaphorically throwing her ex to the lions, she told him.

"Michael's my ex-boyfriend," She began in a calm and business like, emotionless voice, the one she knew he'd respond to best in this state, "We went out for a bit last year before I dumped him. I think he wants to get back together again, but he didn't ask me properly. Short of telling him to piss off, I actively discouraged him."  
>His eyes softened a little and his face relaxed slightly.<p>

"Nothing happened, nor will it ever happen, okay?"

He nodded and, with a small effort, dropped his mask. Ginny smiled at him and put her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a hug while he defrosted a little more. "You okay?"

"No."

She pulled back, "What's wrong?" She was more than a little concerned.

"You're not going to let me kill him." To her relief, his face broke into a smile, though she could see the desire was serious.

She gave a large theatrical sigh, "No, I'm afraid I'm not. As excellent as I'm sure it would be for your reputation, we can't have you challenging random students to duels in the middle of the corridors."

"Challenging to a duel in plain sight? Now Ginevra, that's not my style at all." She looked for a moment as though she wanted to ask him what his style was, the decided against it, though still looking decidedly concerned. "Aha! Your essay is gone! Now I believe I have a reward?"

* * *

><p>As much as Draco trusted Ginny, that didn't stop him from being a little paranoid still. And so he couldn't help but accidentally keep on noticing a certain Michael Corner a little more than before. He noticed that this certain Michael Corner seemed to appear around his girlfriend far more often than was strictly necessary, and spent a little longer being around his girlfriend than was entirely natural. He didn't think Ginny even noticed Corner's being there most of the time. It wasn't that he was hiding; he just wasn't making himself visible. Although Draco was glad that Corner wasn't bothering Ginny, he couldn't help but be concerned as to exactly what this guy was doing. He supposed this Corner was just the shy type, but it still bothered him.<p>

It wasn't an entirely unconscious decision to go out of his way a little to follow Corner, he was just very protective of what was his and wanted to make sure that Ginny stayed protected. He'd lost too much to lose her, especially now. He'd kill the bastard if he tried anything.

Fortunately for Draco's studies, most people now all spent the majority of time in the library, so he could keep an eye on Corner while managing to do some work. And without making it too obvious what she was doing.

He couldn't help but notice that slowly, the seat Corner chose in the library was getting closer and closer to where his Ginny sat.

"Amy?" Colin prodded his friend's arm with mild concern. "Amy?" He kept poking her, though she still wasn't waking up.

Ginny sighed slightly with a smile, knowing that there was no way in hell Amy was going to wake up that easily.

"OI, AMY!"

"What, what's happening Gin?" Amy's head snapped up off the pile of books and she stared in alarm at Ginny.

"Nothing, don't worry. I was just getting bored of Colin poking you." Amy laughed and patted Colin on the head, being deliberately patronising.

"I don't know what you're being so patronising Amy, you're the one falling asleep at eight o'clock. Is wickle Amy tired?" Teased Colin, who then received a smack on the shoulder with a rather heavy book.

"Shut up Col. Come on guys, we'll get this done tomorrow, I really cannot be bothered to work any longer." Colin agreed but Ginny, desperate to get some work done, decided to stay.

"Seriously Gin? It's eight o'clock, you're gonna be dead tomorrow if you keep working much longer!"

"I know Amy, but I just want to get this done."

Colin shrugged. "Come on Amy, we'll pick Gin up in the morning." He grinned at her. "I'm sure you won't be awake much longer either." With an easy smile he ruffled her hair, deliberately messing it up as he knew it annoyed her, and left with Amy.

Ginny sighed and sat back in her chair. To be honest, she did feel just the littlest bit dead from exhaustion, but if she wanted to have anything resembling free time, she was going to have to finish this now. She'd spend another hour doing her essay then go up to the common room.

An hour later and the essay still wasn't finished, but she refused to give in. She would have this damn thing finished! A more than welcome distraction arrived with a tapping noise on the window behind her. Well, behind a few bookshelves behind her. She found her way around the maze of books and opened the window, allowing the unfamiliar owl in.

Well that was strange, her Quibbler (the only paper worth reading any more) usually came in the morning. But this wasn't the Quibbler. This was the Daily Profit. She didn't even get the Daily Profit anymore, the only person she knew who got it was her father, and his should've come an hour or so ago. Unless her father had sent it to her, she had no idea whatsoever this owl was doing with a newspaper for her. And it had to be for her, there was almost no one else in the library at this time.

She untied the paper from the owl's leg and scanned the front page. Or she would've done if her eyes hadn't frozen on the headline. Harry had been arrested.

Shock and numbness began to set in, she could feel it. Quickly, she scan read the article. It wasn't very long; most of it was just a picture of Harry, and not even a recent one. Oh god. It wasn't just Harry. Harry, Ron and Hermione had been discovered by a group of Snatchers while camping in some forest and taken away to the Deatheaters. Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god.

"Ginny?"  
>No response.<p>

Corner was now really rather concerned, she didn't look well. "Ginny, are you okay?"  
>Still no response.<br>He gave up trying to talk to her, and noticed the newspaper in her hands. "Oh my god, Harry Potter's been... Oh." The mystery of what was the matter with Ginny had been solved, and all that stuff about Potter could wait for a moment.

Ginny looked as though she very definitely needed to sit down, otherwise there was a more than small danger that she was going to fall instead soon. "Errm, okay, err, come with me." He said, rather superfluously as it was blatantly obvious that she had no idea that he was even there. He took her by the arm and guided her towards the softer chairs in the non-fiction section of the library and sat down with her.

"Ginny? Are you okay?"

Slowly, Ginny began to regain awareness. She was vaguely aware for instance, there was someone talking to her, and someone had an arm around her, and someone else was really rather close to her. She wasn't really thinking about all these people (or maybe just one person, she wasn't sure), she was thinking about the article, and how her brother was going to die, and how Harry was going to die, and how Hermione was going to die, and how badly her family must've taken this, and how Christmas was never ever going to be the same again.

She wasn't aware of what the person talking to her had just said, but they seemed to want an answer, so she said yes. A few moments later however, her slow unfreezing had been accelerated hugely, enough to notice that there was only one person who had now stopped talking who was now very close who was now kissing her who she did NOT want to be kissing who just was going to break away from, RIGHT NOW. All that took two point five seconds exactly to sink in, then she was running off.

She would've punched him, but to be fair she supposed she had just said yes. As it was, she settled for running through the library until she found a wall (which was quite an achievement) which she then leaned against, panting slightly and wondering if it was actually possible to have had a worse evening.

As it happens, the evening was even worse than Ginny knew anything of.

Draco Malfoy strode through the Slytherin common room in a state of complete calm. So calm that it wasn't possible that there was nothing underneath it. As he walked, groups of people parted for him even more hastily than usual, not that he noticed. His mind was conspicuously blank.

Less than a minute after he had entered his dorm, everyone who had previously been in there left in somewhat of a hurry looking decidedly shaken, dishevelled and in some cases with rather tattered and slightly singed uniform.

Blaise Zabini had been one of the only members of Slytherin house _not_ to witness what had happened with Draco, and so he entered the common room rather cheerfully and proceeded up to his room.

"No!" A hand grabbed onto his elbow and held him fast, stopping him from going up the stairs to the dormitories. Even if the iron grip had been just the faintest of brushes, Blaise would've stopped dead in his tracks, because _Theodore Nott_ had just touched him.

Theodore Nott was a famed haphephobe who had never once initiated any form of contact, be it physical or even just a conversation. And here he was, talking to Blaise and deliberately grabbing his arm. Although he let go fairly quickly.

"What the hell's happened Theo?" Asked Blaise in concern.

"Just don't go up into the dorms."

"Okaay... Why can't I go to bed?"

"Draco."

Immediately, all was explained. "Oh. Right. Thanks for the warning."

A little concerned, Blaise proceeded with care up to the room, opening the door slowly just in case. Theodore had been right to warn him, Draco was not in a good mood. He was, carefully, deliberately and perfectly calmly, destroying everything in the room. It was really rather disturbing to watch.

"Errm, Draco? What'cha doing?"

Draco turned to him, still perfectly calm. "What am I doing Blaise? I believe I'm destroying our dormitory. My apologies for your possessions." He then turned back to the bed in the corner and proceeded to set it on fire.

"Okaay... Errm, why?" Blaise held his breath, this was the question that could possibly cause him to be rather painfully and messily killed. Fortunately it didn't. However, the flames devouring Goyle's bed began to resemble fiendfyre, burning brighter and larger, threatening to start charring the ceiling. Slowly Draco's mask began to crack, his blank expression slowly twisting with rage as Blaise's question forced him to return to the reason he was systematically and efficiently destroying the dormitory.

Blaise took a subconscious step back as anger clouded Draco's face, and most probably his judgement meaning that there was now a very high risk of Blaise being burned to a crisp.

"_Her_."

Blaise instantly understood. Draco had told him about Corner and it did not take a genius to work out that the only person who could possibly be described as "_her_" was Ginny and there were very few things she could've done to make Draco act like this.

But to Blaise's relief, Draco slowly managed to quash all emotions, not only from his face but into a small metal box, locked up very tightly with a large padlock in the very back corner of his head and under a blanket, cutting himself off from them completely. His calm efficiency returned and he turned back to watching Goyle's bed burn, the flames back under control again.

Draco really had to stop doing that, it couldn't be good for is mental health. Ah well, like it would make a huge difference now. With a quick impervious charm on his end of the room (thankfully Draco hadn't reached there yet) Blaise swiftly left. As he passed through the common room he shot a quick half-grimace at Theodore in thanks for the warning, receiving a cross between a smirk and a "Don't say I never told you" shrug in return.

He wound his way along the dungeon passageways, eventually ending up in the entrance hall. Where would she be? Probably in her tower by now. Damn it. Ah well, this was not going to wait. He headed up the marble staircase and onwards toward Gryffindor tower, cursing pretty much everything for making this damn, fucking girl live in Gryffindor. Not that he didn't know where their common room was, he just didn't want to go there.

He finally reached the portrait of a rather dumpy looking woman and hit upon the problem. "Password?"

"Oh fuck, how the hell am I supposed to know?" The fat woman looked rather affronted and as though she was about to make some doubtless annoying comment. "No, don't answer that. You're even more ridiculous when you talk. Here, _silencio_." He looked around, seeing nothing but the fat woman who was now silently yelling at him and bare stones. He highly doubted that anyone in the house was going to tell him where Ginny was, much less let him in. Not that he wanted to. Common rooms were private.

He heard some girlish laughter floating up from down the stairs and silently groaned. Great. The girl seemed to be saying goodnight to her boyfriend. At least he hoped it was her boyfriend rather than her brother as he could hear some fairly heavy snogging. His lip curled in disgust but he stayed pinned against the wall. If this girl saw him then that was only one girl, he'd have no problem. The boyfriend however could well be Ravenclaw. A brainy Ravenclaw and a Gryffindor willing to do something stupid enough to distract him might just be able to take him down. He waited for the boyfriend to leave.

Finally he did and the girl came around the corner, smiling happily and looking really rather airy and dim. Nice and easy, thought Blaise with a grim smile.

Or not so much. As soon as she spotted Blaise she had her wand out and had thrown a stunning spell at him with an expression of such fierce determination that for half a moment Blaise almost considered the possibility of being scared.

He could've duelled her, and most probably won, but she was of no use to him unconscious. Ducking to avoid another curse, he tucked his wand into his belt and raised both hands in the air. He knew how to deal with Gryffindors, they wouldn't fight if he surrendered.

With a deeply suspicious expression on her face, the girl slowly lowered her wand.

"What are you doing here?" She accused.

"I'm looking for Ginny Weasley." Blaise replied in a voice of controlled calm, though his anger still showed through a little. A flash of concern crossed the girl's face before her expression became fierce and suspicious again.

"What do you want with her."

"Oh not much," He said smoothly, "I just think that she and I need to have a little talk."

The girl's eyes narrowed but she visibly baulked a little. Still, Gryffindor to the end.

"I said," she repeated firmly, "What do you want with her?"

"There's something she really needs to explain to me and my friend. She's got a lot of explaining to do." The girl, who had so far not broken eye contact with him, quickly looked anxiously over her shoulder, checking for his friend.

"He's not here. He's currently in his room, but he's even more _curious_ than I am." He was refusing to lose his temper, though his voice was dangerously silky, a quality even Gryffindors recognised as a danger sign.

She considered the matter, then decided. "Alright. I'll tell her you're here. Don't expect her to come out though. You're in the seventh year aren't you, what's your name?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. Just tell her that her friend is here to see her."

The girl swallowed, but stayed firm. "Fine." And with that she left, whispering the password so quietly that he doubted even the portrait could hear it, and then slammed the door shut.

Blaise was left to wait outside, hoping that no one else was going to come up any time soon and wondering if Ginny was actually going to come out and talk to him. Despite his best efforts to remain calm, he was seething inside. If that little bitch had been playing Draco, he was going to have to kill her. He wouldn't go to Azkaban anyway, it would look bad for his mother to have a murderous son and people would start to talk even louder about her husbands. She'd have him let him off.

He'd probably use ricin. Or maybe hemlock, or cyanide. Cyanide's not that painful, but it's a lot faster. But did he want it to be fast? Maybe it would be better to use sarin, nice and painful. Efficient as well...

But Blaise was distracted from his ponderings by the subject in question emerging into the corridor.

"Blaise! What the hell are you doing here... hey! What the hell are you _doing_?" For Blaise had just grabbed her by the hair and dragged her down the stairs and was headed for the nearest empty classroom.

"Argh! Blaise what the fuck?" He threw her in before him before locking the door and casting a silencing charm.

Ginny decided that it would probably be a smart idea to try and work out what the fuck Blaise was doing as he didn't seem to feel like explaining. He had just turned up at Gryffindor tower and dragged her in to a deserted classroom by her hair. Unless Draco was _very_, very wrong about him, it most probably wasn't for the first reason that came to mind.

She looked at him, taking in the face which had blanked over and the calmness that was somewhat detracted from by the unmistakable anger in the heavy breathing. Nope, still no idea what she'd done. Could her evening get any worse?

A few minutes had now stretched by in silence, stood a few feet away from each other while she leaned against the wall, just staring. She decided to go for the direct approach.

"Blaise, what the fuck?"

"What the fuck?" He repeated in disbelief. "You've got the nerve to ask _me_, "What the fuck?"!"

"Yes I've got the bloody nerve Blaise, you've just dragged me from my common room into a deserted classroom by the hair, I think I have the right to know why."

Blaise turned away from her, facing the other wall, almost as though he couldn't bear to look at her. For a moment he seemed almost too angry to speak, but then he controlled himself.

"You know, I think maybe Draco's the only one who's got the right to ask what the fuck right now, but he's a little _busy_ at the moment so I thought I'd do it."

Something about the way he said _busy_ told Ginny that she didn't want to know what he meant. On principal, she had to ask. "What do you mean by busy?"

"Oh, you know, the usual." He replied with false lightness. "Just setting fire to things, burning down our dormitory, nothing worth mentioning." It took Ginny a moment to absorb this latest piece of news. She really had to stop challenging things to get worse.

Blaise wasn't looking at her again, deliberately staring at a small white spot on the wall.

"Blaise," she said, slowly and quietly. His head snapped back around to face her as though she's screamed his name instead. "Blaise, why is Draco destroying the dormitory."

Blaise's expression twisted briefly in fury, but he soon had it controlled again. "You make me sick, you know that?" He said casually, but there was an underlying current of passionate anger to his voice.

Ginny damn near flinched. She never thought she'd hear her friend saying that.

"No." She said quietly, "I didn't."

"Well you do. I don't get how you can just stand there so _casually_," he spat that last word at her, "As though you've done nothing wrong, as though you don't know what you've done wrong."

"But I don't know what I've-"

"WELL YOU FUCKING WELL SHOULD!"

This time Ginny did flinch. She bit her lip, then sagged, sliding slowly down the wall. She brought her knees up to her chin, then quietly asked again what she'd done. Blaise stopped the pacing he'd taken up, looked down at her, and spat a single word.

"_Corner_."

Her head snapped up and she stared at him incomprehensibly. "But nobody saw." She whispered.

She'd said the wrong thing.

His face twisted again in something which from the jumble of expressions she caught a glimpse of seemed to be mainly fury. He had raised his wand and his lips had half formed the incantation when the tear slid down her cheek.

Oh for fucksakes, why did he have to be the only damn Slytherin with a thing against cursing crying girls.

"What the fuck have you got to be crying about. You did this all by your damn self." He growled at her.

Unfortunately she seemed to have lost all form of reasoning and was now crying even harder. "Go on, just bloody jinx me already!" She screamed at him, "Or better yet just stun me and I won't have to feel a thing ever again."

Oh for fucksakes. He was the only person he knew who would not have taken this invitation. Stupid _fucking_ tears. "Why? You think your life is hard _Weaslette_, you think bad things always happen to good people and you didn't deserve this?" He sneered at her. She didn't even try to hide how much that hurt, she was beyond caring.

"I don't care right now Blaise, I just don't care." She smiled up at him weakly through her tears. "Nothing matters right now. Nothing that exists matters to me at the moment." He snarled at her, but she was determined to continue. "My family matters, and my boyfriend matters, and my friends matter, but most unfortunately they seem to be gone right now so I guess I'd better just find something else."

"What are you on Weaslette?" He asked with contempt. "Are you honestly thinking you've got nothing? Are you honestly thinking you know what _nothing_ feels like?"

"No, but having lost four of the people I love most in one evening is about as close as I've got so far."

He glared at her, not sure what she was on about, not sure whether to believe her. "Unless dear Draco has split into four or you've got another three boyfriends he didn't know about who've all dumped you today, I really don't-"

"Oh no, only one boyfriend gone today." She said. All this seemed to be having a rather strange effect on her. She was now rather dismally cheerful and beginning to almost enjoy the conversation. She was sure she'd be enjoying it a whole lot more if Blaise had just stunned her like she'd asked.

"My brother you see, my brother and his two best friends, incidentally some of my best friends as well, they've gone and gotten themselves killed you see," She informed him conversationally, "So that's three of them. And now it appears my boyfriend is even more emotionally damaged than he was before because my ex-boyfriend mobbed me before I even knew what he was doing so I've lost that forever most probably."

She continued on in a rather light and cheerful voice, but Blaise wasn't really listening to the words. He was trying not to listen to the way her voice cracked or watch the tears sliding freely down her cheeks as he thought furiously.

The red mist which had clouded his vision somewhat was clearing. He didn't regret having dragged her from her tower, she'd hurt Draco and would pay, but now he was wondering exactly what she was supposed to pay. Since she'd started crying he couldn't curse her (why oh _why_ did he have to have bloody _morals_?) but he could still have tortured her a little with words.

But it seemed she'd already been tortured enough, the Ginny he knew wouldn't lie about this shit. But the Ginny he knew wouldn't have done whatever she'd done with Corner, but she was now saying she hadn't meant to and the Ginny he knew wouldn't lie. It was all one horrible mashed up circle and he now had no idea what to do except turn to the one thing invented specifically for situations like these which he had carefully avoided his whole life.

He was going to have to trust her.

Slowly, he lowered his wand, took a step towards her and slid down the wall so he was sat next to her. He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. Now sobbing unashamedly, Ginny leaned in to him, crying gratefully onto his shoulder.

Blaise was not unused to being in situations like these, this was how he managed to get all his secrets, but he had never cared about the person before and had never been content to remain silent rather than pumping for information. But still, he provided Ginny a shoulder to cry on and held her close to him, comforting her until she regained control.

After a while she finally managed to pull herself together and sat up, hiccupping slightly. Blaise looked down at his now sodden shoulder, stained as black as her cheeks with the mascara which had poured down. Ah well, it would wash out.

"You okay now Gin?" She nodded mutely. "Good. Now you may want to start explaining before I change my mind and get my wand out." It was calm and reasonable, but hardly without threat. She nodded again, visibly pulling herself together.

"Right," She began, her voice shaky but controlled. "I was sat in the library doing my homework when this owl turned up with The Prophet and I saw the front and it said that Ron, Harry and Hermione had been caught by Deatheaters and I kind of just stopped. I froze over and I wasn't really aware of what was going on, and then Michael came and sat me down cause I think I looked like I was going to faint. Then he was talking to me, and he asked me something, I don't know what, and so I said yes and he kissed me."

Blaise's expression had visibly darkened, his hands unconsciously stirring towards his wand. Ginny decided it would be best to continue quickly. "As soon as I realised what was going on I just jumped up and ran as fast as I could, then I stopped when I reached a wall and just got the hell out of there."

There was still a hardness in his eyes, the protectiveness he felt for the boy he regarded as his brother who cared for him more than any family ever had. He was reluctant to forgive someone who had done this to his friend, but he was going to have to. Draco would need her back, it was far too late for them to just separate amicably. Blaise would take her back with an apology whatever she had done, but forgiving her was a step he wasn't sure he wanted to take.

"Please Blaise," Ginny looked beseechingly up at him, staring him right in the eye with a silent plea. "I am actually begging you to believe me. I would never hurt Draco. I would never do that to anyone."

He could do nothing but believe her.

He nodded.

Gratefully and with not inconsiderable relief she sighed and leaned her head back against Blaise's sodden shoulder. He put his arm around her in turn and both stared blankly ahead of them at the opposite wall.

"Blaise?"

"Yeah?"

"What do I do now?"

"I have no idea."

"Oh." A pause. "Well what do you do now?"

"Now? Now I leave you, if my shirts are still intact I'll change into a _drier_ one and see if I can break down Draco's wall yet without the whole dungeons getting torched."

"Oh okay. Goodnight then."

* * *

><p>Fuck yeah, new upload!<p>

Now you'd better say how AMAZING it is or bad things shall happen! :)


	10. Chapter 10

This is chapter 10 now finished, it starts in around the middle where it says "Part 2"

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><p>Fortunately, Blaise returned to the dormitory to find that his spell had saved his possessions and so only Crabbe, Goyle and Nott had to cope with the fire damage. He wasn't really worried, Crabbe and Goyle because; a) he didn't care about them and b) it's not like they could do anything. Nott would be fine, he'd find some way to undo all the destruction. He was irritatingly smart like that.<p>

Even more fortunately, Draco now seemed to have burned himself out and was simply sat cross-legged in the centre of his bed, staring at the opposite wall. He didn't seem to have even noticed that Blaise was there, and after waving his hands around a bit and calling Draco's name and still receiving no response, Blaise decided it wouldn't be too bad a thing if it stayed that way. He shut the hangings around his friend's bed for privacy before calling down to the other three who still hadn't dared to come up yet.

He'd talk about Ginny in the morning.

Or not as it turned out. Draco seemed to have put all recollection of the previous night into a secure blackbox, and any time it came close to being opened his eyes seemed to flash a cold fiery fury before he restrained himself again and continued on as though nothing had happened.

Blaise had seen his friend in every mood imaginable, or at least he had thought he had done. Never before had Draco been so difficult, distant or volatile. He had never been the easiest person to talk to, what with his extensive list of taboo topics, but now Blaise was constantly treading on eggshells. Anything he or anyone else said or that Draco saw, smelled or felt could remind him of Ginny, and any time that happened any other Slytherin in the vicinity would take a step back and prepare to flee the room. Had the other houses bothered to open their eyes and look for once they would've done too.

So no, Blaise did not speak about Ginny in the morning, or even the next or the one after. Blaise hoped that slowly as time passed Draco might cool down a bit so the topic might be brought up, but unfortunately it seemed that as time went by Draco was just getting worse.

After a week of carefully not speaking unless an answer was required in which case silence could anger Draco so he had to carefully plan an entirely neutral response which would nevertheless agree with his friend so as not to offend him Blaise was getting fairly tired. He decided to bite the bullet and talk to Draco, having first excused him from the potions lesson where Ginny would be in an attempt to make him a little less likely to explode and kill the whole castle at the mention of her name.

"Draco?" Began Blaise, a little tentative but firm,

"Yes?" Draco's voice was measured, perfectly controlled and seemingly calm, but with an undercurrent of "I could kill you right now if I wanted to. In fact, I might do just that" to it.

That was better than it had been for a while so Blaise had the courage to go for his favourite direct approach.

"You're not alright."

Draco froze. If Blaise said one word more he would have to remember. He stayed perfectly still, his mind held in an immobilised state until Blaise spoke again.

"Why." It would've been a question, but Blaise knew why. All he wanted Draco to do was find it for himself.

Draco's brain defrosted within an instant and began to work at top speed, racing through his thoughts until it pulled up short, coming right up against the blackbox of closed off thoughts. His mind froze again, still holding just enough control not to remember.

To say the atmosphere was tense would be to under-exaggerate on an almost criminal scale. Blaise wouldn't have been surprised if the windows had begun to freeze over, but he didn't check. He was too busy staring at his friend, examining him closely to see if he dared to push Draco over the edge that would send him spiralling into the carefully forgotten.

He dared.

"Why, Draco."

His control snapped, Draco fell from the ledge he had been clinging to and plummeted into the blackbox of whirling emotions.

It was as though he was literally falling, his eyes clamped shut and he gripped the table so hard that his knuckles turned white, lights flashed behind his eyes as his mind hurtled through the maze of his mind towards the place where he had hidden the memory of The Event. His occlomency skills were now so good that it took him a full ten seconds to find it, though it felt like no time at all.

His eyes snapped open again, the usually pale grey now alarmingly dark and threatening as they narrowed into a glare. Blaise subconsciously shuffled backwards in his chair a little, a little afraid of the murderous look on his friend's face.

Finally, Draco managed to regain his control. "I'm fine."

"Bullshit."

Again Draco was forced into the maze he had created inside his head, but this time he surfaced quicker. "I'm..."

"Don't you dare say you're fine."

Draco paused. "I'm... I'm doing okay."

"Don't talk shit to me Draco. You're not doing okay, now you tell me why."

He swallowed, gripping the table hard to stop himself from falling again.

"_Her_."

For Blaise, this showed much progress so he was reluctant to push his luck too far. He patted Draco on the shoulder as he got up and left, leaving his friend to his rather turbulent thoughts. It had been a while since Draco had even referred to anything female just in case saying the word "her" or "she" reminded him, so some headway had obviously been made. Blaise wasn't giving up, not by any means, he just wasn't going to carry on right now.

He headed up to the dorms and wrote Ginny a short letter notifying her of the progress and sighed as he tied it to his owl's leg. Why oh why did he always end up getting mixed up in these things. If he could've just been friends with Nott or, hell, just about anyone else, his life would be so much simpler. Ah well.

* * *

><p>She was quieter, she smiled less and laughed hardly ever, and they couldn't help noticing that she kept looking over her shoulder towards the other house tables at dinner. Colin tactfully decided not to mention it as it was obvious that Ginny did not want to talk. Amy however made quite a few attempts, each equally as unsuccessful as the next, before eventually giving up. Ginny assured them that she'd be alright soon, that things were just a little stressed at the moment and she had a lot on her plate. They weren't sure they believed her, but nothing would convince her to say otherwise so they had to be content.<p>

But although she kept on a brave face, Ginny wasn't doing well. She found herself increasingly having to duck into bathrooms after seeing Draco in the corridors, she couldn't bare his reaction. Had he glared, sworn, mocked her, taunted her or full out cursed her, she would've been fine, she would've coped. But he didn't. He just walked straight on. Like she wasn't even there. Like he didn't care either way. And that hurt.

She found herself deliberately baiting him, glaring at him as she passed and whispering loudly about him, about his father as well, knowing that he couldn't fail to react to such comments. But he did. She didn't even exist.

She was starting to get desperate the day Blaise's letter arrived. She'd found herself aiming jinxes at him and only just managed to restrain herself from spilling every secret he'd ever revealed just to get his attention.

She almost cried with relief when the letter arrived, she'd recognise Blaise's Powerful owl (A/N not kidding, that's actually a species) anywhere. She almost cried again when she saw how short the letter was.

_Ginny,_

_I'm sorry but I'm having little luck. Everyone's scared to even fucking look at him still, I've only just managed to get him to even think of you. But it's progress. Hopefully he won't forget again. I'll keep trying for you._

_Blaise_

Ginny stared down at the letter. It hadn't been quite the comforting and reassuring assurance that everything was going well and things would be back to normal soon. But fuck it, she was not going to crack up. She'd be fine without him, besides, it wouldn't be for long. She'd gone much longer.

One week later and Colin and Amy noticed another change in Ginny. She'd gone from being happy, to sad, and was now in an almost permanent state of defiant anger, though thankfully not towards them. She'd decided to tackle her problem with a good burst of Weasley temper and determination, they were not going to get the better of her and she'd damn well prove it.

She'd gone from grades A or E to Es and Os in just that short time, she would damn well thrive until things sorted themselves out. It was not her problem, she wasn't going to suffer for it.

This changer her friends didn't dare comment on. They preferred this new version of Ginny to the previous one and did not want her to go back, and especially did not want an enquiry as to what the fuck was up with her lately to be taken the wrong way.

But the new extra-feisty Ginny had side-effects. She had originally started off with the "Deal With it Yourself, I'm Doing Great" approach, but she was getting bored of it and wanted it dealt with quicker. She decided that enough was enough and that she was going in.

Before going to bed she penned a quick letter to Blaise, warning him that it would probably be best if he used some precautionary charms in the hangings of his dorm mates and warning him not to tell Draco.

Once all of her friends were asleep, she pulled on a pair of jeans so that she felt more prepared and snuck downstairs, grabbing a handful of floo powder as she reached the fireplace and flooing to the Slytherin common room. She checked the coast was clear then made her way up to Draco's dorm.

She hadn't bothered to keep overly quiet, he'd hear her anyway. She'd brought her wand as well, she wasn't stupid enough to believe that Slytherins had the same morals as Gryffindors and she remembered that even when he'd been relaxed around her he'd still nearly jinxed her by accident.

She was right, he was waiting for her when she pushed open the door, stood beside his bed, wand drawn.

"Hello Ginevra." He whispered, with a soft but cruel smile. This was not a good smile, not one that boded well for anyone. It whispered of all the things he'd like to do to her, of how much they'd hurt, of the way she'd beg for mercy before he even let her go and how death had never been a better friend. She ignored it.

"Draco," she said with a smile, "It's been too long." Her smile was genuine, but her voice was not without its own danger. He quirked an eyebrow at that.

"So tell me Ginevra, exactly what is your business here. Unless you're visiting my dear friend Blaise, which is highly unlikely at this late hour, I confess I cannot begin to guess the cause of this most impromptu pleasure."

She smiled again. "Why, perhaps it could simply be that I wished to pay a visit to my dear boyfriend."

His face remained immobile but in his eyes he saw it twist with rage and disgust. When he spoke his tone was no different than before. "Then I believe that you may have chosen the wrong dormitory. The one I believe you seek is the door on the right and about nine floors up to the very West of the castle."

"Actually," replied Ginny pensively, I'm fairly sure that last time I checked, my boyfriend was in Slytherin, not Ravenclaw."

"Well that seems a little different from the last time I checked."

Ha! She was getting somewhere! He all but spat at her, a spark in his eye and she could've sworn she saw his face twitch slightly before repressing the emotion again.

She continued to play it cool, waving away his comment casually. "Oh come now Draco, surely you of all people know what does and doesn't constitute as dating. It's hardly as though you've never done the same."

She had definitely struck a nerve. He dropped all pretence of a mask and actually snarled at her, his face scarlet with suppressed rage. Well, suppressed comparatively. He made half a lunge towards her like an angry dog chained to a post before stopping himself.

"_I never cheated on you_." He snarled at her. "I never did that to you, I thought you were fucking _worth something_, I thought you were something worth _preserving_, something _special_." He have a harsh laugh, "Sure proved me wrong." He turned away, shaking his head and making his way back to bed.

"No." Quite but firm, Ginny stood her ground.

He spun around to face her, furious again, that she had dared to say what she had done was acceptable.

"Oh yeah?" he said mockingly, "You really think what you did was good, you think _what you did_, was anything better than some common whore? Come on Weaslette, speak up bitch!"

"I. Didn't. Do. Anything." She said, in the same small, strong voice.

"Oh yeah you little tart? What, you telling me that it wasn't you, that it was your identical fucking twin snogging that Corner bloke in the middle of the fucking library? Speak up little Weaslette, I'm dying to hear the story!"

"Alright then." She took a step forwards. "Alright." She strode deliberately past him, sitting down on the edge of his bed. "I'm waiting."

Slowly he turned to face her, still finding it a little hard to believe that that was actually what she'd just done.

"No talking until I'm done. Understood?" She didn't wait for his reply, quickly beginning her explanation of the events.

Once she was done she turned to him, finally able to look him properly in the eye as she hadn't dared to as she told her story. He was frozen in place, sat cross-legged on the floor, simply staring at her as though petrified. She assumed he was still listening, dropping the business-like tone and turning to a personal appeal.

"Please Draco. I'm not sorry. I didn't make it happen couldn't have done anything better so I'm not sorry. But I do wish it never happened." She slipped off the bed and knelt in front of him, taking her hands in hers, "I'm yours Draco," she whispered. "All you have to do is take me, because I'm only offering this once. So please take me."

She knelt there for a few moments more, a few seconds, what felt like a few minutes, hours, days even. His eyes remained unresponsive, his body still rigid, stiff and unyielding.

Absolutely refusing to be as weak as to show him her tears, she gave a small sniff, though she still carried herself proudly, her head raised in the most dignified manner she could muster.

She didn't say anything. She just nodded, taking her hands back from his and standing up, straight-backed and tall. She shook out her hair then with dignity she left the room.

* * *

><p>Part 2<p>

* * *

><p>In these three seconds, Draco slowly unfroze. By the time he had taken in all of the information and defrosted enough to move, he door had shut. Cursing under his breath he jumped up and took off down the stairs after her, running silently as ever.<p>

He froze when he reached the bottom of the stairs. She was stood right in front of the fireplace, still standing straight, tall and proud. He had never believed anyone as much as he believed her at the moment when she said that it was his only chance.

It was now or never.

She looked so beautiful this way, she suited looking so dignified, she should be like it more often. Had she been a Slytherin, this would be who she became; cold, proud and quiet, aura humming with power.

He was so absorbed in her movement that he almost didn't notice what she was doing. She had reached for the ornate silver pot of floo powder, she was leaving.

"Ginny." He called simply. There was nothing in his head to say other than simply _her_.

She turned toward him slowly, like a dreamer. "Draco?" She hardly dared to breathe his name.

Swiftly, in a few long strides, he crossed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off her feet into his embrace.

"Don't you ever do that to me again." She whispered, tears now running freely down her face. He buried his face into the soft warmth of her neck, breathing in her sweet, comforting scent.

All he could do was shake his head, "I'm sorry." He murmured, "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry."

She shook her head, it was over now and she'd think about it later. All she wanted now was for him to pick her up and take her away. As though he had heard her thoughts he picked her up easily, holding her close to his chest as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He took her back up to his dorm and lay her down on his bed, lying down beside her and drawing the hangings. He pulled the blanket over the two of them as she snuggled her head into his chest, by far the comfiest of pillows, and the two of them fell swiftly and softly asleep, wrapped up together as though there was no one else in the world.

Ginny woke up the next morning smiling happily, completely wrapped up around Draco and in a warm soft bubble. Unfortunately that little bubble had to be popped as it was still only Thursday and it would look so beyond not good if her friends woke up and found her not there. At least, this was what Blaise was telling her as he shook her softly by the shoulder.

"Come on Ginny, get the hell up!" He hissed at her still unresponsive form. She had decided that pretending to be asleep would be the best move, though she was sure Blaise could tell.

"Right, if you don't get your lazy arse out of that fucking bed right now I'm going to wake you up like Crabbe and Goyle."

"Alright, alright, I'm getting up. No need to bring out the water or whatever creative shit your messed up head comes up with next." She muttered.

He cracked a smile. "Ah but Ginevra darling, you wouldn't have it any other way. Now get the fuck into the fire place and piss off. I'll see you later."

Blaise went back to bed for another few minutes while Ginny sighed and gently prised her body from Draco's so that she wouldn't wake him before padding quietly down to the common room.

"Draco! Oi Draco!"

Draco awoke to the sound of someone calling his name, being shaken none too gently with the simultaneous feeling that something was very good and that something had gone badly wrong.

Once he opened his eyes the shaking stopped and no one was calling his name anymore so he was able to try and think. The good thing was Ginny, she was back, she was his. He smiled.

The bad thing was also Ginny. She wasn't next to him like she should have been. He frowned a little, then shut his eyes again.

"No you fucking don't, get your lazy arse out of bed." His eyes snapped open again, and this time he took in the fact that a rather irritated Blaise was standing over him and shaking him again.

"Alright, alright, I'm getting up." He muttered.

"You said that half an hour ago Draco, now get up."

He groaned and sat up. "Fine, I'm up. I don't get what the bloody fuss is."

"The fuss, you total twat, is that you've now missed breakfast and are going to be late for lessons. Now I suggest you get your lazy self the fuck up and get dressed, as much as I'm sure McGonagall would appreciate your current attire."

Blaise ended his tirade with a wink before turning away, leaving Draco faintly disgusted at the mere thought.

"It's far too early for you to be that disturbed already Blaise." He groaned.

"Too early for _you_ to be that disturbed," Blaise grinned back, chucking a pile of clothes at his friend. "Now come on! I don't feel like having detention for the rest of the week."

Draco groaned again and reluctantly got out of bed and began to dress before quickly pulling a comb through his hair ("You look gorgeous Draco. Hurry up.") and leaving the dormitory.

They didn't have time to get much conversation done in transfiguration as there was a minor crisis during which Hannah Abbot somehow managed to conjure a flock of about a hundred miniature pelicans out of non-being, so it was at break that they were finally able to talk about the previous night.

The conversation began something like this:

"Ow! What in the name of fuck was that for Blaise?" For Blaise had just punched Draco squarely in the face.

"Seriously, SHIT!" He yelled, clutching his jaw.

"You earned that. You are such a dickhead sometimes you total twat."

"What the fuck did I do to earn that?"

"Last night. I seriously thought you had actually let her walk away. And yes I was listening."

"That's why you punched me?"

"Yes."

Draco was going to punch Blaise, but then he noticed a teacher doing a patrol to make sure none of the students were misbehaving and didn't feel like getting a detention so he settled for kicking Blaise very hard in the shin.

Swearing loudly, Blaise hopped around in a circle for a bit before asking what the fuck he had done to deserve that.

"You fucking punched me man. If I had let her go that would be my problem not yours," Blaise snorted loudly, "And I didn't let her, so I definitely didn't earn that."

"Draco, do you seriously think that you have been no different from usual these past few weeks? It is very much my problem if you're completely miserable because it means you're disconnected, volatile, dangerous and boring. That is not good. And you nearly did let her go, if you'd been just a few moments later I bet you would've missed her, wouldn't you."

Draco said nothing, mainly because it was true.

"Okay fine, maybe." He conceded finally, "But that's still no reason to punch me."

Blaise shrugged, half smirking in a way that showed he thought it justified.

Until Draco kicked him in the shin again.


	11. Chapter 11

Ginny Weasley was not a morning person. There was not a chance in hell that Ginny would ever wake up before ten o'clock with a smile on her face, ready for a new day of school. It just wasn't going to happen. Not now, and not ever.

So it was somewhat surprising when she did.

"Morning Amy!" Ginny pulled back her curtains happily, smiling broadly as she sat down at the little vanity in the dorm to brush her hair. Amy pulled her hangings back a crack, frowning at the ridiculously cheery tone to her friend's voice and scrutinising Ginny suspiciously through bleary eyes.

"You." Amy pointed a finger through the hangings at Ginny, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Different. What?"

Amy was not at her most eloquent in the mornings. Nor her most tactful. Fortunately, Ginny just smiled and padded off to the bathroom, leaving Amy to sort out her head.

Ginny left the bathroom a few minutes later, still smiling, when she was suddenly aware of movement to her left before she was tackled to the floor. Too completely shocked to respond, she quickly found herself lying flat on the floor. She twisted her head around to see Amy who for some incomprehensible reason was now straddling her.

"Right," said Amy in an unusually business-like tone. "You are telling me what the fuck has been up lately. Now."  
>"Amy what the fuck?" Spluttered Ginny in incredulous confusion, wondering why on earth her friend had seen this as a good way to have a chat.<br>"Shit's been going weird with you for a while now, and every time we bring it up you just deny it or walk off, and we haven't pushed it cause you've looked liable to kill us lately. That is not happening now, so I want an explanation. I'm waiting."

Ginny sighed and tried to shift into a more comfortable position. "Fine." She thought for a moment, trying to work out a way to translate everything that had happened into something that wouldn't cause Amy to flip out.  
>"Come on, we haven't got all day, and your skinny-arse self isn't particularly comfortable to sit on." She prodded Ginny's hip bone then stared at her accusingly, as though Ginny was forcing her to pin her to the floor.<br>"Okay, okay fine." Ginny sighed. "You know my potions tutor?" Amy smirked. "Yeah, well he got pissed off with me a while back and he refused to tutor me anymore."  
>Amy's bright eyes widened with sympathy, though Ginny detected a spark of annoyance. Amy wasn't happy with the way that Ginny refused to tell her who this mystery man was, but thankfully she was a lot smarter than she looked and accepted Ginny's desire for privacy. "Oh Gin!" She began, but Ginny cut her off, continuing the story.<br>"Anyway, last night he sent me a letter and told me everything was okay and he's tutoring me again now." Ginny couldn't stop the smile creeping onto her face. Amy gave a small happy squeal, ecstatic and delighted for her friend, and leant down to give her a hug, not caring in the slightest that she was now squishing her completely.

"There." Amy jumped off Ginny and beamed. "All problems solved. Now get your beautiful behind into a skirt and we can go eat."  
>Ginny rolled her eyes, though she was still smiling, and got up of the floor, grumbling slightly as she was now rather dusty and she suspected to find bruises on her knees from being knocked to the floor. She did as she was told and got dressed quickly, quicker than usual as she was sure she could hear Amy's stomach rumbling.<p>

They got down to the common room to find a rather irritated looking Colin who was not pleased at having to wait so long for his breakfast. "Hey Col, sorry we're down late." Apologised Amy.  
>"What the hell were you doing up there?" He asked, then paused, "Do I even want to know? But still, do it after breakfast next time."<br>"Oh cheer up Colin." Replied Amy bluntly, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug then kissing him on the cheek, leaving a small, sticky patch of clear lip gloss behind. She linked arms with the two of them and proceeded to half drag them through the portrait hole. Colin had looked in the mood to remain irritated, though after that he couldn't stop a small smile twisting his lips, even as he rolled his eyes and tried to wipe the gloss off his face.

Today was a potions-free day, something which Ginny was sorry for for the first time. Making arrangements to meet up with Draco (something which she absolutely had to do, it had been far too fucking long) was now a lot harder, especially as he wasn't even at breakfast. While she was scanning the Slytherin table for him she caught Blaise's eye and couldn't help but smile. He grinned back at her and sent her a wink, evidently almost as pleased as her by her decision to make up with Draco.

"_Where's Draco?_" She mouthed across the hall at him.  
>He rolled his eyes and jerked a thumb towards the entrance hall mouthing the words "<em>Lazy shit<em>." She smiled and restrained herself from laughing, rolling her eyes also and turning her attention back to her bacon.

Just because she didn't sit next to Draco, it didn't mean that she was alone in her lessons. No one else there was in her year, but Ginny prided herself on her ability to talk to people, no matter how difficult they were to converse with, so making friends with the nice Hufflepuff girl who she sat next to in transfiguration was only too easy. She had heard little of Hannah Abbot from her brother, only that she had succeeded in conjuring a flock of flamingos in their OWL practical and that this seemed to be a recurring talent of hers, so she wasn't entirely sure what to expect. But Hannah was a nice, sweet, girl, and, despite the occasional incident, one of the cleverer Hufflepuffs in her year.

Thank god her intelligence didn't come with overly much intuition or social awareness or it would've been much harder for Draco and Ginny to communicate. While McGonagall was writing something up on the board, Draco caught Ginny's attention and gave her the almost-true smile he used in public and began to signal her a message. He pointed at his eyes, then at her, then held up six fingers while mouthing "_see you at six_". She grinned and gave him a thumbs-up before quickly copying down what had just been written on the board.

As they left the lesson half an hour later, Ginny noticed a small scrap of paper left on Draco's desk and took care to walk past and pick it up on her way to the door. It had no names, times or directions, just in case she didn't pick it up, just the meeting place, "_RoR"_.

Fffffffffffffffffffffffff

Blaise was bored. Again. He didn't begrudge Draco happiness, merlin knew he needed some, and nor would he ever have dreamed to suggest that Draco and Ginny shouldn't be together, but Draco being with Ginny generally meant not being with Blaise, and it was for that reason that Blaise was bored.

Still, he guessed there was no point wasting time, it had been a while since he had renewed his database of secrets. He was currently lying pretty much flat out on the best sofa in front of the fire, but with this in mind he sat up and leaned back against the armrest, cross-legged on the sofa, and listened. "_Ausculto_." He thought, casting the non-verbal spell to improve his hearing. Instantly, even the darkest and shadiest of the common room's corners were no longer out of earshot, and he spent a while dipping in and out of various different, and immensely private, conversations. His findings were nothing out of the ordinary, just some cheating girlfriends, a blackmailer or two (but, alas, not their secrets) and a one-night stand that had not stood very well. Nothing particularly useful, just enough to play with that people would know he wasn't losing his grip.  
>He soon tired of all those conversations, and after listening in to every single one happening in the room, and being thoroughly bored by all of them, he settled on the least dull one, a couple of third years discussing the quidditch scores.<p>

And then, thanks to his amplified hearing, Blaise heard the sound of a pair of heels more than a little higher than the uniform code allowed making their way across the carpet towards him. Oh god. "Surdus," he muttered the counter-charm, not wanting his hearing increased for this conversation.

"Argh what do you want Pansy?" Blaise groaned, lying back flat against the sofa and covering his eyes with his hands. "If I have to say it again then I will, I'm still not interested!"  
>Pansy rolled her eyes and sighed in apparent amusement, perching on the sofa's arm rest. "Oh no Blaise, I gave up on you <em>long<em> ago sweetie," she said with a small, mocking smile, her voice low and smooth, a far cry from her usual wail. (It should be noted that the term 'sweetie' was not affectionate or an endearment, but merely habit on Pansy's part. She was so used to sweetening people up and using, ah, less-than-conventional methods to achieve her goals that her speech was now permanently peppered with such terms.) "And don't worry darling, I don't take it offensively," she ignored Blaise's comment of 'shame' and continued, "It's not like you've chosen anyone else instead of me,"  
>"Or maybe you just put me off." She ignored that too.<br>"Because now I come to think of it," She said in an imitation of complex thought, "I don't think anyone has actually seen you with a girl, ever." Blaise stiffened imperceptibly, and although she couldn't have noticed she seemed to be smirking at him. "Don't worry sweetie," she almost whispered softly, leaning in a little, "It's still Draco I want so you're all safe." Her lips curved upwards in a slightly sardonic smirk.

Blaise didn't want to consider the implications of that last statement. He had always been sure there was more to Pansy than she let on, that she was smarter than anyone thought, and already he was now entirely sure he was correct. This Pansy was not the usual one, this one was not the spoiled little girl who clung to arms like a besotted little kneazle. This one was strong, this one was powerful, this one was a force to be reckoned with and an opponent you couldn't hope to beat. Blaise knew Pansy and he knew power, and never before had the two been so similar. But even so, she couldn't know. No one knew. '_No, you're being stupid_,' he thought, '_she doesn't have a clue, stop being so paranoid_.'

There was a pause, far longer than Blaise was comfortable with and he kicked himself for allowing it to go on for so long. "So what are you talking to me for?" He asked, immensely thankful that he managed to sound entirely unfazed.  
>"Because Draco's not playing ball sweetie, and I want to know why."<br>"And you think I have something to do with it?" He asked with a sceptically raised brow.  
>She laughed, and despite her less-than-attractive appearance, the sound managed to be somehow alluring and surprisingly beautiful. "No silly," She said, almost playfully, her voice still soft and low, "I think, no scratch that, I <em>know<em> you know why."

Blaise raised an eyebrow again. "And what makes you think that? As far as I know Draco is just continuing to be disgusted by you."  
>She gave that laugh again, tilting her head back a little to allow that sound to crash softly across the common room. "You can't fool me Blaise darling, you're the guy with the dirt, you know everything about everyone. You know this."<p>

"Oh yeah," Blaise said slowly, perking up, un-sprawling and sitting up properly, twisting to face the fire and turning to her, a smile spreading across his face, "I do know everything about everyone, including you and the fact that you..."  
>In one swift, fluid motion she slipped off the arm of the sofa and slid onto his lap, pressing a finger softly to his lips and silencing him with a small smirk. Looking at her now, Blaise was beginning to understand how anyone had ever thought her attractive. True, her face was damn near hideous, but there was just... something about her, something that that Blaise was only seeing for the first time now. Sure, she had devoted much time to him in the past (much to his disgust) but never before had he been the focus of her undivided attention so only now was he realising the fully powerful and almost hypnotic effect she had.<p>

Fortunately he was pulled out of his reverie as she began to talk again. "I know I'm a girl of many secrets, but that doesn't mean they have to become common knowledge." She said reproachfully in a tone of mock hurt. "Besides," her voice dropped to a whisper, "They'd lose their value if you started spreading them around." A slow, alluring smile spread across her face.

"You know," replied Blaise, matching her tone, "For a girl who says she's not trying to seduce me, you seem to be trying awfully hard to do just that." He gave her a small smirk, one which she returned coyly as she slid off his lap.  
>"You may have a point there darling." She conceded with a smile, "But that still doesn't change a thing. I want to know what's up with Draco and you better come up with some answers." She leaned up to kiss his cheek softly as she left, leaving a large dark scarlet lipstick mark behind. Despite the obvious threat, her voice had retained the slightly playful tone it had held throughout their conversation, though with a slightly dangerous edge which Blaise did not want to invoke.<p> 


	12. Chapter 12

"Again Blaise?" Asked a voice from behind him.

The owner of the voice flopped down next to him, eying him inquisitively. Blaise sighed.

"Where the hell does the bastard keep going? That's almost every night this week he's not been here, you can't seriously try and tell me that there's nothing going on here honey. Even Goyle isn't that thick." Pansy accused.

"Pansy dear, I'm going to continue telling you that for as long as you keep asking."

"But you _are_ lying to me darling."

"I couldn't possibly say."

She smiled at that. "Such a loyal friend aren't we Blaise." She teased.  
>"I prefer to think of myself as a gifted entrepreneur." He replied with a small smirk, "I am not inclined to give away my goods for free you know."<p>

Pansy thought for a moment, a slight pout spread across her lips, then smiled slowly. "So if I could offer you a good enough secret, I could buy that one off you?"

For the smallest of seconds, Blaise's smirk _almost_ wavered before he replied smoothly, "I don't think you could afford it."

She raised an eyebrow, indignant. "Excuse me? You may be the Dirt King but I'm the Gossip Queen, I know damn near everything."

Blaise inclined his head, acknowledging the truth in what she said, but continued, "Nevertheless, this one is truly immensely valuable. I doubt even all my secrets would be able to buy this one. It's a big secret and he is our king after all."

For the smallest of seconds, a frown flitted across Pansy's face, before being replaced with a slow, luxurious smirk. She leaned in close to him, laying a hand on his thigh as she whispered into his ear, "What about _your_ secret? How much is _that_ worth? About equal?" her smirk widened as she drew back, "_More, I think_."

Blaise fought hard to resist the temptation to freeze. She might not know anything, if he was to call her bluff he would have to act as though nothing had happened.

He raised an eyebrow at her casually. "Oh? And what secret is this you speak of?" His tone was light, a little bored but as though humouring a young child.

Her smirk became a little more wicked, the dangerous and powerful glint was back in her eye as she leaned in again, laying a hand dangerously high on his thigh. This time she was so close that her cheek was against his, he could actually feel her lips moving and her breath blowing softly past his ear as she whispered so quietly he could barely hear, "The one where nothing I'm doing will have any effect on you. The one where you've been eyeing up Flint more than his little sisters. The one where you're what the muggles call 'bent'."

Now Blaise froze. There was no bluff to call.

She pulled away from him again, and had Blaise been in the mood to notice he would have seen that the satisfied glint had faded from her eyes, she was watching him more cautiously now, almost worried.

She waited patiently for him to compose himself, her eyes politely averted, though she couldn't help but glance at him anxiously every few moments.

As soon as Blaise could think straight, he cursed himself. If he could've just controlled himself he could have denied it! Why did he have to be such an idiot?! There was no denying it now.

Pansy seemed to have noticed that he had returned to normal, as she placed an almost conciliatory hand on his knee. "It wouldn't have made a difference anyway Blaise." It had been only too obvious what he was thinking, "I've known about you for too long darling, you couldn't have denied it. Blaise nodded mutely, still a little blankly, until he found his voice.

"How, how long have you known?" Despite the initial stutter, he had done admirably well, though his face was still far too blank.

"Probably longer than you have darling." she said sympathetically. "I would've been stupid not to watch the guy who watches everyone else."

"I see." He replied pensively, thankfully by now appearing as though nothing had happened, "And you've just been saving it up for the perfect moment to wreak havoc?" he asked conversationally.

She frowned. "Do I really seem like that much of a callous bitch?"

Blaise just looked at her.

"Oh yeah, I do don't I." she giggled slightly. "I guess that's not the point." she sobered up again then continued. "The point is, I'm not actually that much of a callous bitch. It's just easier to look like one. Anyway, I digress. Is Draco's secret worth yours?"

Blaise paused, brain racing. Either way, someone would become an outcast. If it were him, he would still have the tattered remains of his conscience intact, and hopefully a friend who might be able to help him out. If it was Draco, he would have no friends, nothing left of his conscience, but he wouldn't spend the rest of the year getting beaten to a pulp. It was a hard choice to make.

Pansy sat there patiently, watching him intently and waiting for his decision. Finally he sighed and gave his reply.  
>"No."<p>

Pansy tutted and sighed, flopping back against the sofa. "Ugh, fine. You win."

Blaise turned to her, utterly perplexed. "Excuse me? I'm sorry what? Exactly which part of this do I win? I've just agreed to spend the rest of the year having the shit beaten out of me, how the fuck do I win here?"

She sighed again. "Because this time you actually did call my bluff. I won't tell anyone."

Blaise did a small double take, now even more confused than before. "Wait, hang on, what?"

"I lied. Whether or not you told me about Draco, I still wouldn't have told anyone about you. You're safe and so is your precious friend. Congrats." She finished dryly.

Blaise let out an unconscious sigh of relief and sank back into the sofa, silently thanking whichever deity had saved him this time. Then he sat back up and turned to Pansy. "Thank you. I don't know why you've done it, but just thank you."

She gave him a smile that was more like a smirk. "And now you want to know why."

"And now I want to know why." He repeated, his thankful air gone and replaced with a far more business-like one.

She sighed, and almost squirmed slightly, obviously uncomfortable by what she was about to say. "I guess, let's just say I quite like you Blaise. You're a nice guy, and I like talking to you. It's more fun than any of those arseholes." She said, waving her hand vaguely at the room in general.

Blaise smiled and raised an eyebrow, recognising one of the most prestigious compliments he was ever likely to receive. "And who do those arseholes include?"

"Ugh, just everyone."

"Everyone? What about Draco? And Daphne and Verity and that lot?"

"Ugh." Pansy repeated firmly. "_Especially_ all of them, and especially_ especially_ Draco. I can't _stand_ the bastard. Though I guess the feeling's mutual." she laughed.

"Then why the fuck go to so much effort to be around him all the damn time?" He demanded in frustration.

She rolled her eyes. "'The Malfoys are a very prestigious family my dear,'" she said, evidently imitating her mother, "'and you would do very well he to stay on their good side. And remember, the contacts you make now will help you greatly in later life.' Ugh."

"What? So you're just doing it to show your parents that you're trying to suck up to him?"

"Yup." She sighed. "And holy fuck is it boring. Would probably be better if we were both being people rather than masks (cause I'm sure he wears one) but since both of us are masked, neither of us will take it off. Stalemate. Boring."

Blaise shook his head with a small smile. Yes, he had a feeling Draco would be much more interested in this Pansy than the one he had to put up with most of the time.

"Why don't I just get both of you to take them off?" He suggested. It would just make everything so much easier.

Pansy shook her head ruefully. "The problem is, we don't know who's got more to lose. We can't tell each other while wearing the masks, and, I'm not joking here, if you tell him anything I will not hold back and the entire fucking house will know _everything_. I don't take betrayal well and I don't have friends because they don't get just how little they have to do for it to count as betrayal. You say a word about me to _anyone_ and I will _burn_ you."

"Understood." Blaise replied calmly, understanding that he was seeing the inside of a mask that had hardly been taken off in almost six years and so, with its first exposure, was beginning to crack.

She smiled back at him gratefully, then gave him a kiss on the cheek and left. Blaise couldn't help the smile that crept across his face, even as he struggled to clean the scarlet smudge from his face.

Blaise couldn't help but begin to be somewhat (cautious) friends with Pansy. She had unmasked herself in order to show she was powerful and get what she wanted, and now it was far too late to put the mask back on. Anytime she began to consider homicide (often), she'd just go off somewhere with Blaise. They were both aware of some of the rumours that were being whispered (only whispered at the moment) about them, and neither were interested in denying them. (It made Pansy look good and made Blaise look straight, why deny it?)

Blaise had to admit, he fully enjoyed her company. She was funny and smart with a biting wit and it was far more fun than just sitting his own or with Theo, waiting for Draco to come back from Ginny.

Ever since their temporary split, the two had been closer than ever, they were spending at least an hour or so together every damn night now, Blaise couldn't help but wonder what Ginny was telling her friends about it. They obviously hadn't been told the truth, he was sure that her Gryffindor buddies would've come to warn Draco about treating her right or something of the sort, but he couldn't see them being fobbed off easily or going without an explanation. Besides, he may have spent a certain amount of time looking at Creevy, and he wasn't stupid. Nor was he unattractive, but that was beside the point.

When he tried asking Draco about it, he quickly found that Draco didn't care, just so long as they didn't stop him from seeing Ginny. On the increasingly rare occasions he saw the girl, there wasn't really an opportunity to bring it up, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. He liked seeing her happy, almost as much as he liked seeing Draco happy. He decided it was all for the best if he did a little digging himself (and it would only be a coincidental bonus if it gave him an excuse to look at Creevy).

Blaise was good at watching people subtly, without them noticing. It made it easier that Creevy and Co. spent a good deal of time outside Gryffindor tower, in the library, on the grounds and sometimes even just wandering around the corridors. Unfortunately he soon discovered that one of Ginny's two best friends was in fact the girl he had met outside the Gryffindor corridor when looking for Ginny in a rather bad mood. He was pretty sure that she would remember him and also be none too keen on him if Ginny had returned that night in a remotely similar state to the one he had left her (and to be honest, put her) in.

As Creevy seemed to the smarter (not just the more attractive) of the two, Blaise preferred to follow him when he was separate from the Forsyth girl (was her name Amy?). Creevy spent a lot of time in the library, often doing homework and often apparently just reading, seemingly fascinated by even the most dull and dreary subjects of the wizarding world. Blaise guessed with was a muggle-born thing, most of them seemed to be more interested than anyone else in random magical trivia.

Most of them time Blaise was bored out of his mind, he even found his attention wandering to other conversations, listening out for any interesting and potentially useful titbits (Lisa Turpin's cheating on her boyfriend and he's fairly sure Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan are in a relationship) before pulling his focus back to the Gryffindors.

When Ginny was with them he usually left them to it, he was hardly going to find out their secret opinions about Ginny while she was there, and he didn't want to be caught watching her. But he did discover what she told them she was doing when she went to meet Draco, it was almost always her "potions tutor", or perfectly credible essays which he nonetheless knew either hadn't been set or had been due in already. It seemed that he wasn't the only one who knew that she wasn't actually receiving potions tutoring, because whenever she mentioned her "potions tutor" both Creevy and Forsyth smiled knowingly, and Creevy often rolled his eyes affectionately.

Unfortunately he also noticed that it bugged Forsyth that she didn't know who Ginny was really meeting, sometimes he'd spot a little spark of anger flash in the girl's eyes before she bade Ginny farewell, and she'd give a little huff when the girl left, speculating to Creevy about who she was meeting. Creevy never joined in, keeping his head fixed firmly down at his work or out of the nearest window, replying with a vague "maybe" or non-committal noises.

To Blaise, his response meant one of three things. Either Creevy didn't care, wanted to stay out of it, or he already knew. Any of the three was fine by Blaise, but he would prefer to know which one it was. Blaise sat back in his comfy chair, a few metres from the two Gryffindors' table in the library, staring blindly down at the book on his lap and thinking intently. Obviously he couldn't just ask Creevy, that was just completely stupid. From watching Creevy he had found him fairly non-confrontational, so it was possible he was just staying out of it, and he obviously cared about Ginny so it was unlikely to be that he didn't care, and he was also very smart and seemed quietly rather perceptive, so...

"Are you spying on us?"  
>Blaise was jolted from his thoughts by the sudden presence directly in front of him of the Forsyth girl, blunt, blonde and surprisingly smart as ever. The sudden question, and the directness of it, shocked Blaise. He wasn't used to being simply asked such questions. It was hardly the first time that someone had suspected that they were being watched by him, but none of them had ever handled it in this way before.<p>

Scrambling to collect himself he assumed an expression of cool disinterest, standing up to gain the advantage of height over her, if only by a few inches. He hated being below people, it gave them the intimidation factor which he was careful to avoid. "Excuse me?" He asked, his voice amused and disbelieving. "I believe I must have misheard you, I thought you just asked me-"

"I just asked you if you were spying on us. Are you?"

Blaise raised an eyebrow, "Now why on _earth_ would I be doing that?"

The girl shrugged. "You tell me."

His eyebrows raised even higher, but he otherwise ignored her last statement. "You'll have to forgive me," he said condescendingly, "But I don't know your name." She opened her mouth to reply, but he cut her off, "Perhaps that should give you some indication of my interest towards you. In other words, I do not care about you. The real question here is why would I waste my precious life watching _you, _little Gryffindor, and why would you think I care?"

The girl was frowning now, but she raised an eyebrow. "You're always there, everywhere we go it's like you're-"

Blaise yawned theatrically, "Like I said, I don't care about you. My question was rhetorical. Leave."

Scowling and with dignity, the girl turned and left, returning to her seat beside Creevy, who had been watching the exchange closely.

Cursing internally, Blaise directed his gaze back to his book, but not before catching Creevy's inquisitive look. He would have to be more careful from now on. That girl was smarter than she looked. He would remember that.  
>He'd stay a little longer in the library, perhaps to the end of the chapter of the book on his lap, then leave. In the meantime, he cast the enhanced hearing charm on himself so that he could hear the now-quieter conversation between the two he was watching.<p>

"Yes I did, Colin." Forsyth responded to Creevy's previous question.

"But why Amy? Why?" Creevy sounded resigned, but determined to have this conversation anyway.

"Because I keep seeing him around! And don't pretend like you haven't noticed too. It's not natural for Slytherins to spend this much time in the library, and it can't be a coincidence that he's always around us."

"Can't it?"

"No."

Creevy paused. "Just, just leave him Amy."

"Colin!"

"No Amy. Just leave him. He's not doing us any harm at the moment,"

"How do you know that? Who knows _what_ he's doing watching us," The girl interrupted,

"And you should know better than to piss off a Slytherin _in the year above_ especially." Creevy carried on, ignoring her. "That's Zabini, he's smart, he could make life difficult for you, for both of us."

"But what's he even doing here?"

"Who cares? It's none of our business and..."

"But he could read that book in his common room, that's how Slytherins work. What's he doing in the library, I mean..."

But Blaise never found out what she meant, because at that moment Pansy sat down opposite him. "Zabini." She said warmly (well, for her).  
>Quickly removing his hearing charm (and resisting the urge to wince at how loud her voice was to him) Blaise gave her a slick smile, a smirk really. "Parkinson."<p>

She gave him her customary sickly smile. "Oh I _was_ hoping I'd find you here. I haven't seen you around much lately darling."

"Well we can't have that now can we?" He drawled, amused.

She grinned and moved to sit in his lap, whispering in his ear as he risked a glance at Creevy and Forsyth, who had noticed Pansy's arrival and seemed slightly less suspicious now, but a lot more disgusted. "Who are you watching here Blaise?"

He turned to face her, one eyebrow raised with intrigue. "And what makes you think I'm watching someone?" His voice was disguised with a low, almost seductive tone that Pansy took as a hint not to break cover, as she giggled slightly and leaned back in to whisper,

"Well it _was_ just that you were sitting in the library and you have been a lot lately, out the common room _far_ more than usual," Even with a private whisper Pansy's voice was often stained with seductive inflections, pausing to draw out words to maximum effect and always sounding like an invitation, "But _now_ we're doing some _lovely _acting and I'll be _fucked_ if we're not putting on a show for someone.

"Oh you will, will you?" He asked out loud with a smirk.

She smiled coyly and nodded.

"Well it that case I think we'd better get going, hmm?"

She smiled a satisfied smile and stood up. The two Gryffindors looked up and noticed as they left the room.

Outside on the grounds and round the corner they dropped the act and sat down.

"So who was that for?" She asked simply.

"No one."

She laughed loudly, then turned back to him seriously. "No honestly darling, who was that for?"

"I said..."

"I heard what you said, but you were lying and I want an answer."

"I can't give you one."

Pansy frowned, pouting. "Ugh. This wouldn't have something to do with Draco would it?"

"No it wouldn't."

"And if it did you wouldn't tell me?"

"Correct."

They both smiled, understanding each other.

"Oh come on Blaise," Pansy broke the amicable silence. "I'm pretty sure we're now in an official relationship and I want to know who for. Blaise considered this.

"Yes, we probably are now."

"So Draco will hear about this. I know he's been ignoring or just not bothering listening to the whispers about us for a while, but it'll be more than whispers now and he's bound to hear it. And you can't tell him I know about you."

Blaise opened his mouth to protest but she carried on talking. "No Blaise you can't tell him. That would show him that I'm smarter than I look and I can't afford that right now. So you've just organised yourself a fight with your best friend, that's how important this was to you. Who the hell were you watching?"

* * *

><p>Thank you everyone for bearing with me on this one, I'm sorry it's been so long since my last update, and it is thanks to ChocChipCookies123 that I have remembered to do it now. Stupid A Levels and cosplay getting in the way of all my procrastinating.<p>

But on a lighter note, have you got any opinions on the story? Do you think Colin knows or is he just staying out of things? Will Blaise tell Pansy, will she work it out, or will she have to keep waiting? And how exactly is Draco going to react to this?


	13. Chapter 13

Blaise just sighed. "You know I can't tell you that Pansy. You know it's more than I'm worth."  
>"No, it's more than you trust me with."<br>Blaise's mouth fell open. "Wha- trust? Pansy what the hell are you talking about? We're Slytherins."  
>"Oh don't give me that bullshit. And don't think I'm going to be easy on you with this. I want to start knowing things Blaise. So you'd better start telling me." As with that she turned around and went back inside, leaving a shocked Blaise staring after her.<p>

Trust? What the hell was she talking about? They were Slytherins, they didn't just do things like that. Well, not this easy anyway. It wasn't that they didn't trust at all, Blaise and Draco trusted each other, and Blaise had to admit that he had a small amount of trust in Pansy too, but that was all built on mutual blackmail, not just wanting to trust someone. He couldn't just tell Pansy Draco's secret, that would be a betrayal of Draco's trust and Blaise could not, would not risk that.  
>But, Blaise sighed, he supposed he had just lost that hadn't he. Not all of it, sure, but Draco sure wouldn't be pleased to find out that his best friend was dating his nightmare.<p>

Pansy had once told him that she wasn't that much of a callous bitch, despite appearances, but right now appearances were looking pretty damn convincing. While Draco and Blaise had been sat in the common room doing their homework after dinner, and she had come right up to Blaise, sat down on his lap, and kissed him. The area immediately around them had fallen into almost total silence, except some excited whispering and a quiet choking noise coming from Draco. Blaise had been too stunned to react, watching helplessly as Pansy stood up, winked at him and said, "I'll see you later darling." In a voice that positively dripped with suggestion.

Blaise dropped his gaze back to his work, trying to act as nonchalantly as possible, as though nothing strange had happened at all, and continued, knowing that Draco would, at least for now, do the same.

Draco's anger simmered below the surface for the next twenty minutes of impeccable acting, until he announced that they could finish their essay tomorrow and suggested that they both go upstairs. Knowing that this was not an invitation he could refuse, Blaise agreed and quickly packed away his things, following Draco up to the dorms. Most fortunately there was no one there, so they were free to speak directly.

After a few seconds of silence while they simply stood and faced each other, Draco found the words he wanted. "Blaise, what the actual fuck."  
>"I know Draco," Blaise wasn't going to pretend like Draco didn't have reason to be angry, he just wanted Draco to understand at least some of the reason that had happened. "Just listen to me..."<br>"No Blaise, what the _actual _fuck was that?"  
>"Draco, I can..."<br>"Fucking _Pansy_ Blaise, _Parkinson_, of all the girls you could have gone to for a quick shag you chose fucking..."  
>Blaise's arm twitched as though about to throw a punch. "Don't you give that crap to me Draco." Blaise's voice was cold with anger, his dark eyes flashed furiously, "Don't you dare give me that bullshit."<br>As though suddenly realising what he had just said Draco stopped, his eyes widened and his anger left him. "Shit Blaise, listen I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."  
>Blaise's hands curled into fists. "Don't talk to me like I'm some total twat who only thinks with his dick, you of all fucking people know that of everyone in this house I'm the only one who's <em>not <em>allowed to do that!" Draco bit his lip, as Blaise continued, "So don't you give me that shit. Do you not think that maybe there was an explanation other than sex as to why your _gay_ _best friend_ was kissing a _girl_ that neither of us like?"  
>"Listen Blaise, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said,"<br>"Damn right you shouldn't have said that!" Blaise swallowed, still seething but beginning to deflate. "I am not that kind of person Draco, I can't afford to be, and neither of us had better fucking forget it. Okay?"  
>Draco nodded. "Yeah Blaise, I'm-"<br>"I'm going to bed. I'll talk to you in the morning. Good night Draco."

Draco woke up the nest morning with a small spurt of water to the face, telling him that Blaise was still mad, but not that mad (obviously, or there would have been much more water). He sat up and turned to Blaise's bed, where Blaise was sat cross legged and facing him.

"Morning." Blaise's greeting was not cold, but suggested that he should not do anything stupid this morning.  
>"Hey Blaise. You done the charm?" Blaise nodded, he had made sure the other occupants of the dorm would be unable to hear the conversation. Draco spent the next few moments trying to decide whether mentioning Pansy would count as something stupid, until he was interrupted by Blaise.<br>"She knows about me."  
>"What?" Draco's reverie was swiftly broken and he almost cricked his neck, turning his head to stare at his friend so quickly. He stood up from his bed in shock. "Wait, what? What do you mean?"<br>"You know what I mean Draco, she knows."  
>His eyes widened. "But how? Who else has she told."<br>"I don't know how, she just said she'd been watching me. And I don't think she's told anyone."  
>Draco gave him a deeply sceptical expression.<br>"I know, that's what I thought, but if she has told someone I don't know who. No one's done anything."  
>"How long has she known?"<br>"I don't know. Long enough to have done something with it."  
>"Alright then, when did she tell you that she knew."<br>Blaise hesitated. "It's been a few weeks now."  
>Draco stared at him. "A few <em>weeks?<em> Blaise what the hell? Why didn't you tell me?"  
>"You've been busy Draco, you've hardly been here."<br>"I haven't been that busy, I haven't been away that much." He protested.  
>"Oh really? Well then why was Pansy and me news to you? You were the only one in the entire common room who was surprised Draco. Everyone else had seen this coming for weeks."<br>"Wait, seen it coming?"  
>Blaise sighed. "Yeah Draco, she didn't just let me know she knew about me then ignore me until yesterday."<br>Draco stared at him. "Well what the hell have you been doing with her?"  
>Blaise sighed. "I can't tell you that Draco."<br>"What the fuck do you mean you can't tell me?"  
>"I mean she's got me by the balls and made it clear that I can't talk about her to you. To anyone."<p>

Draco shut his eyes in an 'I can't believe this is happening' expression. "Okay," He said in a tone of definite calm, "What can you tell me?"  
>"Nothing other people don't know. We've been seen together all around school for the past few weeks. Pretty much any time you're not here she comes over to me and we talk for a while. Usually outside so people can't hear us. There have been rumours we've been dating for ages, everyone had heard them, but now I guess they've been confirmed."<p>

Draco sat back down on his bed, thinking about how much time he had been spending with Ginny lately. Now he thought about it, it had been a lot. But had it really been so much he had missed such widespread rumours, had he really not noticed his friend at all over the last few weeks?

"Damn Blaise, I've been a really shitty friend." He said by way of an apology.  
>"Nah it's okay Draco, you've got Ginny, I get that."<br>"No, I mean it-"

But precisely what Draco meant, Blaise would never know because at that moment they heard the slight rustle of Nott's curtains opening, signalling the end of their private conversation.

Despite how long they had been meeting together without being caught, Ginny was no less careful than usual to make sure that there was no one around to notice her as she headed towards the room of requirement. Looking both ways down the corridor to make sure there was no one coming, Ginny began to pace quickly and slipped through the door to find a comfortable and luxurious looking lounge, one she had become accustomed to since they had first started meeting there, and Draco waiting for her.

Pretty much beaming she skipped over to him and settled in his lap, planting a kiss upon his cheek. "Hey Draco."  
>He looked at her imperiously and raised an eyebrow, prompting her to giggle and give him a proper kiss. "Much better Ginevra." He said, smiling finally.<br>She whacked him on the knee for the use of her name and settled back more comfortably against him, aware that she was probably digging some of her bones into him as she did so and smirking slightly because of it. He just rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Good day then Gin?"  
>"Eh, not too bad."<br>"Especially because I'm here now."  
>Ginny rolled her eyes but could not hold back the slight smile. "Yes Draco, especially because you're here now."<p>

Throughout the rest of the conversation Draco acted normally, but Ginny couldn't help noticing there was something slightly off about him. He seemed a tad distracted, and at times there was a slightly distant or guilty look in his eye.

Ever blunt, Ginny decided it was best to just come straight out and ask him what was wrong with him. There was a moment's pause where he sought out the words to say. "Do you think maybe we spend too much time together?" He asked. "I mean, shit, I love spending time with you, don't get me wrong," He corrected quickly, noting her expression, "It's just, fuck, I don't know. I've been a really shitty friend lately."  
>Ginny looked up at him curiously. "What d'you mean?"<br>Draco sighed. "Pansy found out about Blaise. Weeks ago actually, and I only found out yesterday. Everyone thinks they're dating now, the whole house has thought it for fucking weeks and I had no clue."  
>Ginny's eyes were wide. "Shit."<br>"Shit." He agreed.  
>"Shit, wait, what's she gonna do?"<br>"I don't know, and if Blaise does he can't tell me."  
>Ginny paused for a moment, thinking, and then asked curiously, "What would actually happen if anyone else found out about him? Are people just that intolerant in Slytherin?"<p>

Draco sighed. "The short answer is yes, yes we are."  
>"And the long answer?"<br>He sighed again. "I'm not saying that everyone in Slytherin is innocent and lovely, but that's the way we're supposed to be, you know? Everyone expects us to be heartless bastards and treats us that way, so it's hard not to play along. And what with a lot of us having parents who are Deatheaters, well, the Dark Lord expects us to join too, so we all know it's probably gonna be join or die, and you've got to act like you want the former. Plus we all know there are a couple of sick twats who really want to join, a couple of idiots who want to kill people, to destroy anything unpure. So everyone has to be careful. You have to act like you hate the unpure even if you don't really care, you have to join in when someone starts throwing punches or someone will write it down and tell their parents and you'll be punished, or your parents will. So I don't know if the house is homophobic, and it doesn't matter because whatever they think they have to act like it."  
>"Wow."<br>"Yeah."  
>"No, it's just, I'd never thought about it like that."<br>"Like what?"  
>"Well, in Gryffindor you can choose what to do really, so we kinda just assume that Slytherins just choose to be giant dicks. I'd never thought about it being like that, with so much pressure and everything."<br>Draco just smiled. "Nobody does." He visibly pulled himself together a bit and shook his head. "But that's not the point. In short, the wrong people finding out is just a not good think for Blaise, and trust me when I say that Pansy knows who the wrong people are."

Biting her lip, Ginny realised that she probably hadn't been the best of friends lately either. She didn't even know if Amy had a new boyfriend yet, and if so then was she leaving Colin alone? Man she'd feel bad if she found that she'd just been ditching Colin on his own.

After a (long, lingering) kiss goodbye, Ginny slipped out of the door first, Draco waiting behind a few minutes in the hope that no one would see them and connect the dots. She had always promised herself that she wouldn't be one of those girls who gets a boyfriend and forgets her friends, and so far she hadn't. Right the way through Michael, Terry, Dean and Harry she'd still probably spent more time with Amy and Colin than her boyfriend, but now… Well, she still spent more time with them, but that was mostly only at times when she physically couldn't see Draco, during lessons or late in the evenings. It wasn't like she was with Draco _every _day, it just, kinda seemed like it now she thought about it. Man she was a terrible person.

She picked up her pace, hurrying slightly on her way back to Gryffindor tower, feeling distinctly chased by her guilty thoughts. But she needn't have worried. Everything was as it always had been, as it should be. Amy and Colin were sat in their usual chairs by the fire, with one on the end spare where she should be sitting, trying to do their homework while smiling and laughing with the fire casting warm and rosy light across their cheerful faces. Ginny felt a sudden warmth and feeling of home wash over her as she joined them, and her world slid back into place again.


End file.
